Stephen Doster

by Marissa Shapiro May. 26, 2020, 11:38 AM Vanderbilt researchers have discovered that perchlorate, an environmental pollutant found in many sources of drinking water in the U.S., inhibits the uptake of iodide, an essential component of thyroid hormones, in a more pronounced and fundamental… Read More

by Marissa Shapiro May. 29, 2020, 12:00 PM A complex artificial intelligence-powered analysis is being deployed by Jonathan Irish, associate professor of cell and developmental biology and scientific director of the Cancer & Immunology Core, in the race to understand the inner-workings… Read More

May. 19, 2020, 8:00 AM by Leigh MacMillan The protein cGAS plays an essential role in cellular innate immunity by detecting the DNA of invading pathogens such as bacteria and viruses, or our own damaged and mislocalized DNA. Activation of the cGAS-STING signaling pathway produces a pro-inflammatory immune response, and prolonged activation of cGAS can result in… Read More

May. 14, 2020, 2:30 PM by Bill Snyder Ross River fever is a mosquito-transmitted disease endemic to Australia and surrounding Pacific Islands. There is no specific treatment or vaccine for Ross River virus (RRV) infection, which causes rash, fever and debilitating muscle and joint pain lasting three to six months. Read More

May. 14, 2020, 2:00 PM by Leigh MacMillan The bacterium Bacillus anthracis — the cause of the serious infectious disease anthrax — has been used as a bioterror agent. Understanding how B. anthracis adapts to hostile environments to cause infection may identify new targets for treatment.  Eric Skaar, PhD, and… Read More

Linda Sealy, Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Associate Professor of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, recently announced her retirement. On May 8, 2020, Vanderbilt University bestowed on Dr. Sealy the title of emerita faculty.   Sealy Retirement Announcement 7 May 2020 Dear Colleagues, I am… Read More

May. 7, 2020, 10:43 AM   by Bill Snyder More than 70% of all viruses known to cause human disease, including the one that causes COVID-19, are RNA viruses. They invade the body by hijacking the internal machinery of cells. Yet little is known about how viral RNA commandeers host… Read More

May. 5, 2020, 8:00 AM by Leigh MacMillan Compounds called inositol diphosphates are cellular signaling “codes” involved in multiple processes ranging from phosphate sensing to DNA metabolism.  John York, PhD, and colleagues have demonstrated that the evolutionarily conserved gene product Vip1 is capable of both synthesizing… Read More

Apr. 30, 2020, 10:00 AM by Bill Snyder Marburg is a distant, more lethal cousin of the RNA virus that causes COVID-19. An outbreak of Marburg hemorrhagic fever in Angola in 2004-2005 killed 90% of the approximately 250 people it infected.  Now researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch… Read More

https://cdn.vanderbilt.edu/vu-web/medschool-wpcontent/sites/64/2020/05/07095027/Tansey_website.mp4   By Suneethi Sivakumaran WDR5 has different moonlighting roles in the body, including in chromatin regulation and in chromatin-independent processes such as cell division. © Ian Dyball, stock.adobe.com The human body is a complicated network of interdependent cellular processes regulated by gene-encoded proteins. Proteins… Read More