Kathryn Schneider Beauchemin, Guarini '26, has won the 2026 John W. Strohbehn Medal for Excellence in Biomedical Research. This award is presented to a graduating doctoral student whose work embodies true scientific leadership: driven by curiosity, marked by rigorous and original research, and guided by a strong sense of responsibility to the broader scientific community. Susan B. Roberts, senior associate dean of foundational research at the Geisel School of Medicine, presented the award at the Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies Investiture Ceremony.
Beauchemin, originally from Presque Isle, Maine, earned her PhD in biochemistry and cell biology, conducting her doctoral research in the lab of Surachai Supattapone. Her research focuses on prion diseases – the rare, fatal brain disorders behind mad cow disease and Creutzfeldt Jakob disease. She invented a fluorescent test that lights up the infectious prion protein inside single cells, a capability that previously did not exist.
That tool let her run the first large-scale genetic screens of prion disease, uncovering host pathways that control how much normal prion protein sits on the cell surface, a key step in disease progression. The screens pointed to two enzyme complexes that drugs can target directly, and blocking them reduced prion replication across multiple species and strains, a result that could lead to treatments effective against several forms of the disease. Her research has produced multiple first-authored publications and a patent.
Beyond the lab, Beauchemin created a flow cytometry assay now used by other research groups, mentored fellow students, and led STEM outreach for middle school students in rural New Hampshire. Since completing her PhD, Beauchemin has continued at Dartmouth as a postdoctoral fellow in both the Supattapone lab and in the Institute for Biomolecular Targeting (BioMT) core facility.
