Dr. Kathleen Brasky named recipient of 2026 AVMA Lifetime Excellence in Research Award

(SCHAUMBURG, Illinois) June 24, 2026-The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) today honored Dr. Kathleen Brasky, professor and veterinarian at the Southwest National Primate Research Center (SNPRC) at Texas Biomedical Research Institute, as the winner of the 2026 AVMA Lifetime Excellence in Research Award.

Established in November 2005, this award recognizes a veterinary researcher on the basis of lifetime achievement in basic, applied or clinical research. Winners are selected based on the total impact their career has had on the veterinary or biomedical professions.

"For more than three decades, Dr. Brasky has shown how veterinary expertise sits at the very heart of biomedical discovery," said Dr. Michael Q. Bailey, president of the AVMA. "Her work caring for and studying nonhuman primates has helped make possible major advances against some of the world's most serious infectious diseases, from hepatitis to Ebola to COVID-19. She embodies the vital and often unseen role veterinarians play in protecting both animal and human health, and I am honored to recognize her with this award."

Dr. Brasky has spent more than 35 years at SNPRC and Texas Biomed, where she has become a leading figure in laboratory animal medicine and comparative biomedical research. A Diplomate of the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine (ACLAM), she has built her career around the development and refinement of nonhuman primate models that allow scientists to study human disease with exceptional accuracy, while setting high standards for animal welfare and care.

Her research has supported major advances in understanding and modeling some of the most challenging infectious diseases of our time, including hepatitis B and C, HIV/AIDS, Ebola, Lassa fever, Zika virus, tuberculosis, anthrax and SARS-CoV-2. Working extensively in high-containment laboratories, she has helped investigate how these diseases progress and evaluate potential vaccines and therapeutics, bridging veterinary medicine and human health in ways that have informed clinical trials and public health responses.

Among her most timely contributions was her role in the preclinical evaluation of COVID-19 vaccines, including studies in nonhuman primate models that supported the development of mRNA vaccines during the pandemic. It was a continuation of a career-long pattern of veterinary research arriving at the center of urgent global health challenges.

Dr. Brasky has co-authored more than 100 peer-reviewed publications in leading journals, including Nature, PNAS, Hepatology, Journal of Virology, NPJ Vaccines and Nature Microbiology. Across this body of work, her contributions consistently demonstrate the value of veterinary science to translational research and the One Health connections that link animal and human medicine.

Beyond the laboratory, Dr. Brasky has been a dedicated mentor to veterinary students, residents, postdoctoral fellows and early-career scientists, many of whom now lead research programs in academia, government and industry. She has served on institutional animal care and use committees for decades and contributed to national scientific service-including the AVMA Panel on Euthanasia-and advisory roles with the National Institutes of Health, ACLAM and the Association of Primate Veterinarians.

Her contributions have been recognized through honors including Clinical Veterinarian of the Year from the AALAS Texas Branch and consecutive Best Clinical Innovation Awards in 2023 and 2024. Dr. Brasky earned her bachelor's degree from Villanova University, her veterinary medical degree (VMD) from the University of Pennsylvania and a master's degree in laboratory animal medicine from Pennsylvania State University.

To learn more about the AVMA Lifetime Excellence in Research Award and past recipients, visit https://www.avma.org/awards.

For more information, contact Michael San Filippo, AVMA senior media relations manager, at 847-732-6194 (cell/text) or [email protected].