10 Mizzou faculty named Curators’ Distinguished Professors

By Janese Heavin, heavinj@missouri.edu

The University of Missouri Board of Curators recently named 10 University of Missouri faculty members Curators’ Distinguished Professors and Curators’ Distinguished Teaching Professors.

The designation is the highest and most prestigious academic rank the Board of Curators awards. It is awarded to a select few outstanding scholars with established reputations. Four Mizzou School of Medicine faculty were among this year’s recipients:

Donald Burke-Agüero, PhD, professor of molecular microbiology and immunology

Since joining the University of Missouri in 2005, Burke-Agüero has built an internationally recognized research program that bridges molecular microbiology, immunology and astrobiology. His pioneering work with aptamers and catalytic RNAs has not only advanced fundamental science but also opened doors to innovative therapeutic possibilities. Backed by more than $21 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Science Foundation (NSF), and NASA — including a flagship NASA grant that launched a multi-institutional consortium in 2021 — his lab continues to push the frontiers of RNA biology.

Burke-Agüero was recently elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Raghuraman Kannan, PhD, professor of radiology

Kannan directs Mizzou’s Cancer Nanotechnology Lab, where his research targets some of the most pressing challenges in oncology: drug resistance, immune evasion and effective therapeutic delivery. His team has developed novel RNAi-based therapeutics, immunotherapy strategies and self-assembled multilayered systems that show superior efficacy in reversing resistance in preclinical cancer models. With more than $10 million in external funding — including NCI/NIH R01 grants and a $6.4 million industry partnership — his translational research spans collaborations with multiple universities.

He has published in high-impact journals including Advanced Materials and ACS Nano. The technologies developed in his laboratory have been patented.

R. Scott Rector, PhD, professor of nutrition and exercise physiology, associate dean for basic sciences, director of the Roy Blunt NextGen Precision Health building

Rector leads internationally recognized research on obesity, metabolism and steatotic liver disease. His translational program — spanning preclinical bench studies to clinical trials — has been continuously supported by grants from the NIH, Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and industry partners. His program is currently funded from multiple NIH R01s and VA Merit and VA Research Career Scientist Awards.

Rector directs the Roy Blunt NextGen Precision Health building and serves as associate dean for basic sciences and research infrastructure in the School of Medicine.

He is a Fellow of both The Obesity Society and the American College of Sports Medicine, underscoring his impact at the national level.

John “Jack” Tanner, PhD, professor of biochemistry

Tanner is a structural biologist with a background in theoretical physical chemistry and computational biology. His research advances both fundamental enzymology and translational science using a variety of structural and computational approaches including X-ray crystallography, cryo-electron microscopy and molecular dynamics simulations. Interests of his lab include developing structure-function paradigms for proline metabolic enzymes and structure-based drug design targeting enzymes involved in the metabolism of cancer cells. Currently supported by two NIH grants and an NSF award, his research has produced over 180 peer-reviewed publications and over 200 structure depositions to the Protein Data Bank.

Tanner has received numerous awards including the William Evans Fellowship at the University of Otago, New Zealand.

For the complete list of this year’s Curators’ Distinguished Professors and Curators’ Distinguished Teaching Professors, visit ShowMeMizzou.com. This story originally appeared on Tuesday, September 16, 2025.