MSU Medical Student Bridges Research and Patient Care Through Van Andel Institute Graduate School Partnership

May 11, 2026

As an undergraduate, Nathan Spix developed a passion for medical research, but then he felt a slightly different calling.

He wanted to step outside the lab and into the clinic, treating patients with the knowledge he had gained in research.

“I want to focus on research that has direct impact on human health ,” Spix said. “Medical school was looking more appealing as a way to translate my work into patient care.”

Through a partnership between the College of Human Medicine and Van Andel Institute Graduate School, Spix found a way to pursue both goals. The alliance allows students to earn a medical degree from MSU and a PhD in molecular and cellular biology from VAI Graduate School.

Students in the program follow a two-four-two track, spending two years in medical school followed by four years working toward a PhD at VAI Graduate School and then completing the last two years at the College of Human Medicine.

Spix received his PhD from VAI Graduate School in May of 2025 and is completing his third year of medical school. He is the fourth student to go through the program since the partnership was formed in 2008, and three more are enrolled now, said Cindy Arvidson, PhD, an MSU professor of microbiology, genetics and immunology and director of the MD/PhD program at MSU.

“We’ve had some amazing students go through the program,” she said. “I’m grateful for the partnership with the VAI Graduate School, and I hope it will continue to grow.”

Eric C. Swindell, PhD, chief academic officer and dean of VAI Graduate School, called the partnership “extremely important. We are very happy to collaborate with MSU’s College of Human Medicine.”

Spix, he said, “was an exemplary student. He came in very well prepared.”

Spix’s PhD studies focused on understanding how colon cancer develops. While much research looks for mutations that cause cancer, Spix studied single cells for evidence that other changes can turn genes on or off, setting the stage for cancer, a field of study called epigenetics.

He was co-first author of the study published in the July 2025 edition of Nature Communications.

“We can look at the changes in the path that caused that cell to become cancerous,” Spix said. “If we can know how the earliest changes occur, we can treat that cancer at a very early stage.”

Since returning to the College of Human Medicine, Spix has been spending nights and weekends on another research project using artificial intelligence to aggregate information from countless other studies for the most common epigenetic changes that cause cells to turn cancerous.

“He’s developed an AI model to ask questions that we have not been able to ask previously,” said Peter W. Laird, PhD, the Peter and Emajean Cook Endowed Chair in Epigenetics at VAI and Spix’s VAI Graduate School advisor. “It’s very original, and it’s emblematic of Nathan’s independence in coming up with ideas.

“I respect his passion to help patients, but he is also an outstanding scientist. I just wish there were more Nathans to go around.”

Nathan Spix is the recipient of the Professor Leonard J. Luker Memorial Scholarship; The Helen and Verne Beilfuss Endowed Scholarship in Oncology Research; Wilbur C. Wright Memorial Scholarship; and the Van Andel Institute Department of Epigenetics Research Excellence Award.

By Pat Shellenbarger | Media Contact Emily Linnert