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June 2026 Inside the Institute Newsletter

A Message from Rob McCarley
Executive Director, The Fralin Life Sciences Institute

A graphic displaying the dictionary entry for the word "invest," featuring a thick orange vertical line on the left. The word "invest" is written in a bold, dark grey serif font, followed by the part of speech "verb" in a lighter blue-grey font. Below the main entry, the syllable breakdown "in·vest" and the pronunciation guide "in-'vest" (enclosed in a rounded light blue bubble) are displayed in grey.

to make use of for future benefits or advantages; to endow with a quality

Significant and far-reaching impact is evident from the four research investment institutes at Virginia Tech since Virginia Tech President Charles Steger envisioned them in the early 2000s. 

As an architect of organizational advancement and its requisite change, Steger’s installation speech contains elements that are prescient about pursuing “hopes and dreams” and providing us valuable guidance in challenging times.  

While the nature of challenges and opportunities at hand are unprecedentedly different, there are common threads, including “higher education is in transition” due to “the revolution in information technology and the integration of the global economy.” 

Virginia Tech's investment institutes strive to address current needs and opportunities through partnerships and well-informed decisions, so that this crucial research arm of the Office of Research and Innovation (ORI) can help move forward the interdisciplinary research, educational, and engagement capabilities of our faculty and the university.

The Fralin Life Sciences Institute (FLSI) succeeds on these fronts by relying on institutional strengths and “dreams…shared by the entire community”, made possible when “we join together in our efforts” and invest in and/or change “the right things at the right time.” By following the Institute's vision, it works toward three overarching aims that target:

  • Catalyzing innovative research and scholarship at the forefront,
  • Growing upcoming pre-eminent researchers via a pipeline of complementary professional development programs, and 
  • Impacting pre-higher education learners and public stakeholders through engagement and potentially life-changing life sciences research programs. 

The Institute makes progress toward these aims by enacting our mission of improving the human condition by supporting activities with associated outcomes, which are distinct and distinctive.

Our approaches are engrained with the Institute’s guiding principles, namely, innovative, collaborative, effective, efficient, transparent, and prudent democratized pathways for providing resources and support to the Virginia Tech life sciences community.  

With these aims and principles and the Institute’s 4C strategic framework in mind, FLSI commits to promote, enhance, and expand life sciences at Virginia Tech so that we help “increase our scholarly productivity across the board” in the life and molecular sciences. 

We do so by collaborating with stakeholders; culturing highly interdisciplinary environments and teams, catalyzing cross-cutting initiatives of affiliates, and communicating outcomes deemed impactful using metrics that are “commensurate with standards of global excellence.”  

Our affiliates and institute personnel are successful with these endeavors due to the FLSI strategically investing resources comprised within its four priority investment areas: 

  • Research Opportunities;
  • People;
  • Research Ecosystems; and
  • Research Backbone (Infrastructure).  

In this edition of the newsletter, you will learn about outcomes from our partnerships with stakeholders for each of the four priority investment areas, which also align with our three overarching aims (Accelerate and Initiate Paradigm-Shifting Science; Develop, Grow, and Promote Next Leaders; and Impact Communities). 

Finally, sit back and enjoy something a little extra, with four stories that celebrate our faculty stakeholders and people in our affiliated centers. 

I once again invite you to revisit the January newsletter and ideate possibilities that help Virginia Tech work toward Global Distinction. 

To that end, it will be valuable to consider a variety of approaches, including familiar ones, but also one offered up by President Steger in 2000 when he specifically called out ideas about investment and thematic institutes: “New alliances with business and government will be critical to leverage support for our projects.”

Let’s go Hokies, and let’s go FLSI!

Rob McCarley Signature

P.S. Last month’s solutions to the Fralin Fiddler crossword puzzle are available now!

FLSI Research Investment Priorities

Investment in People: Fralin Fabulous Five Recognition Program

A man in a grey polo shirt and khaki pants stands on the left, and Courtney Leisner, a smiling woman in a striped sweater and jeans, stands on the right. Together, they hold up a large poster on an easel. The poster features a portrait of Courtney Leisner in a greenhouse behind potted seedlings, with the text "ralin Fab Five 2025" along the left edge and "Courtney Leisner" and a Virginia Tech Fralin Life Sciences Institute logo on the right.

Investment in Research Backbone/Infrastructure

Six people pose together indoors for a group photograph next to a large display screen and a table draped with a VCU tablecloth. On the screen, a quote from an Illumina sales representative mentions the "VT/VCU NovaSeq X Plus." From left to right, the group includes a woman in a black blazer and light pink dress, a man with glasses and a beard wearing a dark patterned tie and grey suit jacket, a taller man in a suit standing slightly behind the group, an older woman with grey hair wearing a textured beige jacket and name tag, a woman wearing a white jacket over a blue top with a name tag, and a man with glasses wearing a dark suit with a red patterned tie.

Investment in Research Opportunities and Research Ecosystem: First-Year Undergraduate Research Fellows

Two young women look at a smartphone screen together indoors, while a woman in a maroon polo shirt holding a clipboard stands in the background looking on.

Investment in Research Backbone/Infrastructure and People: Meet the VT-FAST Team 

A group of individuals are seated around a table indoors engaged in discussion. In the center, a man with glasses, a short beard, and a grey blazer gestures with his hand as he speaks. To his left, a young man in a blue shirt listens intently with his hand near his chin. In the foreground, another person is seen from the back, wearing a textured grey sweater, and a peaked uniform cap rests on the table nearby. A woman is partially visible on the right side of the frame working on a laptop.

Celebrating Virginia Tech affiliated faculty and staff service recognitions 

A smiling woman with wavy, shoulder-length hair sits outdoors on a wooden picnic table, wearing a pink button-down shirt with a modern building and green trees in the background.

Center for Biostatistics and Health Data Sciences offer office hours

Two smiling women with glasses look together at a grey Dell laptop screen on a white table, with one woman in a black top pointing at the screen while the other in a grey top looks on.

Joseph Hoyt elected to the Ecology Society of America as Early Career Fellow

A smiling man wearing a white Tyvek protective suit, a baseball cap, and a headlamp stands outdoors against a backdrop of dense green trees and foliage.

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