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Recent Daniel Drake Medalists

Learn about the 2026 Daniel Drake Medal recipients from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. Discover their remarkable achievements in medicine and their impact on the field.

2026 Drake Medal Recipients

Image of Robert H. Eckel, MD
Robert H. Eckel, MD

Robert H. Eckel, MD, is Professor of Medicine, Emeritus, in the Divisions of Endocrinology, Metabolism & Diabetes and Cardiology at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, and a leading American cardiometabolic medicine expert whose academic career spans more than four decades and has shaped modern understanding of metabolism, obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. 

Dr. Eckel began his career with a BS in Bacteriology (1969) and an MD from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine (1973), graduating as a member of Alpha Omega Alpha, and in 2013 was named a distinguished alumnus. Dr. Eckel completed his internal medicine residency at the University of Wisconsin Hospitals (1976) and a fellowship in metabolism and endocrinology at the University of Washington (1979). These formative years established the scientific foundation for his lifelong focus on lipid and lipoprotein metabolism, insulin resistance, and cardiometabolic disease. 

Dr. Eckel joined the University of Colorado faculty in 1979, rising rapidly through faculty ranks to become Professor of Medicine (1989) and later Professor of Physiology and Biophysics (1995). His science was recognized with the Charles A. Boettcher Endowed Chair in Atherosclerosis (2000–2019), and he has held numerous leadership roles, including Vice Chair for Research Affairs, Department of Medicine (1998–2004); Director, Adult General Clinical Research Center (1993–2008); Director, Clinical Translational Research Center Network, Colorado CTSA (2008–2014); and Interim Vice Chancellor for Research, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus (2018–2019). These roles positioned him at the center of major institutional research initiatives, particularly in translational cardiometabolic science and medicine. 

A central theme of Dr. Eckel’s research focused on the tissue-specific regulation of lipoprotein lipase (LPL), the rate-limiting enzyme for the clearance of triglycerides from circulating triglyceride-rich lipoproteins. This regulation proved to be strongly related not only to lipid fuel partitioning, but also to oxidative metabolism, insulin sensitivity, energy balance, and body weight regulation. His research using population studies, clinical trials, genetically modified animal models, and tissue/cellular/metabolic based experiments has mechanistically integrated how metabolic disorders—obesity, metabolic syndrome, diabetes—drive cardiovascular disease. He has authored more than 460 peer-reviewed publications, including nearly 400 original research articles, in journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, Annals of Internal Medicine, Science, Nature, Cell Metabolism, PNAS, Journal of Clinical Investigation, Lancet, Diabetes, and the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 

Throughout his career, Dr. Eckel has mentored 50 trainees, many of whom have gone on to leadership roles in academic medicine and research. Among them are Philip A. Kern, MD, Professor of Medicine and Co-Director of the Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences, Barnstable Brown Diabetes Center, University of Kentucky College of Medicine; Daniel H. Bessesen, MD, Professor of Medicine and Director of the Anschutz Health and Wellness Center, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus; Paul Poirier, MD, Professor of Medicine and Scientific Director of the Cardiovascular Rehabilitation Program, Quebec Heart Institute/Laval Hospital, Quebec, Canada; Teri Hernandez, PhD, RN, Professor of Medicine and Nursing and Associate Dean of Research and Scholarship, College of Nursing, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus; and David Maahs, MD, PhD, Professor of Pediatrics, Division Chief of Pediatric Endocrinology, and Associate Chair for Academic Affairs in Pediatrics at Stanford University and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. 

Dr. Eckel is also forever grateful to the many wonderful members of the Eckel lab over the past 40 years, with special thanks to Dalan Jensen, MS; Trudy Yost, RN; Isabel Schlaepfer, PhD; Hong Wang, PhD; and Kimberley Bruce, PhD. 

Dr. Eckel also founded the Lipoprotein Apheresis Program at the University of Colorado, now part of an integrated program he initiated at the University of Colorado Hospital, the Cardiometabolic & Advanced Lipid Clinic. This development has expanded clinical care for patients with complex and severe familial lipoprotein disorders such as familial hypercholesterolemia, severe hypertriglyceridemia, and elevated lipoprotein (a). 

Dr. Eckel has served as President of the American Heart Association, President of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity (now the Obesity Society), President of the American Diabetes Association, and President of the Association for Patient-Oriented Research, a rare combination that underscores his influence across cardiology, endocrinology, and obesity medicine. He cochaired the 2013 ACC/AHA Lifestyle Guideline and contributed to the 2013 ACC/AHA Cholesterol Guideline, shaping international standards for cardiovascular disease prevention. 

His career is recognized through major awards including the TOPS Award for Obesity Research from the Obesity Society (2005), AHA Gold Heart Award (2010), Outstanding Clinical Investigator Laureate Award from the Endocrine Society (2016), W. Virgil Brown Distinguished Achievement Award from the National Lipid Association (2017), and Luminary in Cardiometabolic Medicine Award from Heart in Diabetes (2021). 

Through more than four decades of research, clinical innovation, and national leadership, Dr. Eckel has profoundly shaped the modern understanding and treatment of cardiometabolic disease, helping to define this field and elevating the University of Colorado’s national reputation in cardiometabolic research.

Image of Bruce Colston Trapnell, MD
Bruce Colston Trapnell, MD

Bruce Colston Trapnell, MD, is Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Director of the Translational Pulmonary Science Center at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Scientific Director of the Pulmonary Alveolar Proteinosis (PAP) Foundation, and Vice Chair of the Alpha-1 Foundation Medical and Scientific Advisory Committee. An internationally recognized clinician-scientist, Dr. Trapnell is widely known for his pioneering work in rare lung diseases, pulmonary alveolar macrophage biology, granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) signaling, and translational development of gene, cell, and biologic therapies.

After training in biochemistry, genetics, and medicine, Dr. Trapnell spent thirteen years at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as a physician-scientist investigating the molecular basis of pulmonary diseases and developing novel molecular pathogenesis-based diagnostics and therapeutics for rare lung diseases. His early work contributed to the identification of multiple cystic fibrosis-causing mutations and the development of adenoviral vector-based in vivo gene therapy. He also served as Director of Virology at Genetic Therapy/Novartis, where he helped advance translational approaches to genetic medicine.

Dr. Trapnell joined the University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in 1997 and went on to establish a nationally recognized program in rare lung disease research. As Director of the Cincinnati Cystic Fibrosis Therapeutics Development Network Center for more than a decade, he led multiple clinical trials, including studies that resulted in FDA approval of Creon® and Pancreaze® for the treatment of exocrine pancreatic insufficiency in patients with cystic fibrosis. He subsequently served as Scientific Director of the Alpha-1 Foundation, where he created a rigorous scientific review infrastructure and research funding program that has remained in place for several decades and has provided more than $100 million in support of numerous investigators studying alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency.

A hallmark of Dr. Trapnell’s career has been his commitment to collaboration among scientists, clinicians, industry partners, patients, and their advocacy organizations. In 2003, he co-founded with Francis McCormack the Rare Lung Diseases Clinical Research Consortium (RLDC), an international network that transformed the clinical research landscape for rare lung diseases including pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (PAP), lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM), childhood interstitial lung diseases, and alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency. Through the RLDC, investigators conducted the landmark MILES trial, which ultimately resulted in regulatory approval of sirolimus for LAM in the United States and more than forty countries worldwide.

Dr. Trapnell’s most influential scientific contributions have centered on defining the role of GM-CSF in lung biology and disease. His laboratory established that impaired GM-CSF signaling disrupts alveolar macrophage maturation and function, leading to pulmonary alveolar proteinosis. Building upon these discoveries, his group elucidated the pathogenesis of autoimmune PAP, demonstrated that GM-CSF autoantibodies are the cause of the disease, and developed a blood test that has become the global gold standard for diagnosis of autoimmune PAP. These advances transformed clinical recognition of PAP and enabled the identification and care of patients worldwide. Together, this body of work supports the consideration of GM-CSF as an essential pulmonary hormone.

His research has also led to the discovery of five previously unrecognized lung diseases, including hereditary PAP caused by mutations affecting the GM-CSF receptor pathway and related signaling mechanisms. Dr. Trapnell has been a leader in translating these discoveries into new therapies, serving as sponsor-investigator on FDA Investigational New Drug applications evaluating inhaled recombinant GM-CSF for autoimmune PAP and pulmonary macrophage transplantation for hereditary PAP. His team developed pulmonary macrophage transplantation as a novel gene and cell therapy platform and initiated the first-in-human clinical trial of this innovative treatment approach.

Continuously funded by the NIH for more than twenty-nine years, Dr. Trapnell has authored more than 200 peer-reviewed publications, reviews, and book chapters. He has trained and mentored clinicians and scientists at multiple career stages while serving in leadership roles for numerous scientific, philanthropic, and advocacy organizations. Through visionary leadership, transformative scientific discovery, and unwavering dedication to patients with rare lung diseases, Dr. Trapnell has fundamentally advanced the understanding of pulmonary biology and established new standards for the diagnosis and treatment of rare respiratory disorders.

Image of E. Steve Woodle, MD
E. Steve Woodle, MD

E. Steve Woodle, MD, is Professor of Surgery with Tenure and the William A. Altemeier Endowed Chair in Surgery at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. A multiorgan transplant surgeon trained in transplant immunology, Dr. Woodle has spent more than four decades advancing the understanding of human allograft rejection and pioneering immunosuppressive therapies that have reshaped the field of transplantation.

Dr. Woodle earned his bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, from Texas A&M University and his medical degree, magna cum laude, from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, where he was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha in his junior year. He received numerous awards in medical school including outstanding student in obstetrics and gynecology, anesthesia and surgery, and for highest score on both Part 1 and Part 2 of the National Board Exams. He completed his general surgery training, including a chief residency, at the University of California, Davis, followed by fellowships in renal, pancreatic, and hepatic transplantation and an NIH-funded research fellowship in transplantation immunology, all at the University of Chicago.

Dr. Woodle began his faculty career at Washington University School of Medicine before joining the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. While at the University of Chicago, Dr. Woodle set a Guinness World Record for the youngest liver transplant recipient, a 10-day-old infant. He joined the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine in 1999 as Professor of Surgery and directed the Division of Transplantation for nearly two decades, building a program recognized internationally for its clinical and research excellence. In 2001, he performed the first allogeneic islet transplant for type 1 diabetes in Ohio. While a faculty member at UC, Dr. Woodle returned to the operating room himself after his own liver transplant in 2003, becoming the first liver transplant recipient to perform a liver transplant.

Over his career, Dr. Woodle has helped originate several therapeutic approaches now considered standard in transplantation. During his transplant immunology fellowship, he conceived the genetic re-engineering of the Fc receptor binding region of OKT3, the first FDA-approved monoclonal antibody—work later developed into teplizumab (Tzield™), which gained FDA approval in 2022 as the first immunomodulatory therapy for type 1 diabetes. He also conceived the use of a single chain antibody transgene for allograft-mediated immune protection. He was the first investigator to introduce plasma cell–targeted therapy for a non-malignant human disease, using proteasome inhibitors to treat antibody-mediated rejection in kidney transplant recipients, and he pioneered corticosteroid-free immunosuppression regimens in kidney transplantation, including the field’s landmark double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of early corticosteroid withdrawal. Beginning in 1995, he also helped conceive and establish clinical kidney exchange programs for incompatible living-donor pairs, publishing the field’s first peer-reviewed description in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1997; kidney exchange now accounts for roughly one in five living-donor kidney transplants performed in the United States.

Dr. Woodle’s scholarship includes more than 400 scientific publications that have been cited over 22,000 times, with an h-index of 82, and he has multiple issued and pending patents. He has delivered more than 700 invited lectures at academic medical centers across the United States and abroad, and has mentored generations of transplant surgeons, physicians, and pharmacists.

Among his many honors, Dr. Woodle received the American Society of Transplantation’s Senior Achievement Award in Clinical Transplantation and was named Ashbel Smith Distinguished Alumnus by the University of Texas Medical Branch, both in 2025. His research has also earned the American Journal of Transplantation’s Outstanding Translational Science Paper of the Year (2024) and the International Transplantation Society’s Leslie B. Brent Award for Best Scientific Paper (2022), among other national recognitions.

Through his scientific discoveries, clinical leadership, and mentorship, Dr. Woodle has profoundly shaped the field of transplantation and enhanced the University of Cincinnati’s international reputation in transplant medicine and immunology.

Past Recipients

2025 Drake Medal Recipients

Mary C. Mahoney, MD, FACR, FSBI
Francis Xavier McCormack, Jr., MD
Anil Menon, PhD
Jeffery D. Molkentin, PhD

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2024 Drake Medal Recipients

Gail E. Besner, MD
James P. Herman, PhD
Brett M. Kissela, MD, MS

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2023 Drake Medal Recipients

Linda S. Book, MD
Henry A. Nasrallah, MD
Marc E. Rothenberg, MD, PhD
Daniel Woo, MD

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2022 Drake Medal Recipients

Melanie T. Cushion, PhD
Michael K. Farrell, MD
Bruce F. Giffin, PhD

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2021 Drake Medal Recipients

William Barrett, MD
W. Brian Gibler, MD
Peter Stern, MD

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2020 Drake Medal Recipients

Alan Jobe, MD, PhD
Laura Wexler, MD

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