Stephen Doster

Nov. 20, 2019, 4:14 PM by Bill Snyder Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) has been awarded a three-year, $3 million grant from The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust to map — in unprecedented detail — the biology of Crohn’s disease. Under the terms of the award, which… Read More

Nov. 18, 2019, 8:30 AM by Cayetana Arnaiz Yépez Cytokinesis is the final step of the process of cell division, by which the two new cells are physically separated. This process relies on a structure called the cytokinetic ring, which needs to be linked to the plasma membrane throughout cell division. Read More

by Kelsey Herbers Researchers from the Vanderbilt Genetics Institute and the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center are partnering to examine how genes affect sleep and circadian disturbances in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) with a goal of creating a genetic risk profile of insomnia in ASD. The study, funded by autism advocacy organization… Read More

Nov. 14, 2019, 11:00 AM by Bill Snyder Proteins that move electrically charged ions of sodium, potassium and chloride across the cell membrane are vital for the control of cell volume — the amount of water inside the cell and regulation of intracellular chloride. In central neurons, cation-chloride cotransporters, proteins… Read More

Nov. 5, 2019, 8:30 AM by Bill Snyder The bacterial toxin lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is one of the most potent virulence factors of Gram-negative bacteria that cause sepsis. Exposure to even tiny amounts can trigger a systemic — and potentially lethal — inflammatory response known as endotoxin shock. Proinflammatory SRTFs (stress-responsive… Read More

By Alexandra Fuller Model of vertebrate replication termination. Adapted with permission from Dewar et al. Nature 2018; 525:345–350. DOI: 10.1038/nature14887. You might break chicken eggs for your breakfast, but the lab of James Dewar (Biochemistry) breaks frog eggs to better understand the mechanisms cells use to terminate DNA replication. Published… Read More

By Cayetana Arnaiz Yépez Super-resolution images of two human epithelial cells. Fluorescence intensities are heatmapped to facilitate visualization; warmer colors correspond to higher levels of the cytoskeletal protein, actin. Image courtesy of Matt Tyska. Cells along our intestinal tract are responsible for absorbing nutrients and acting as a barrier to… Read More

By Natalya Ortolano Confocal laser scanning microscopy image of the dorsal cord of a young adult showing a VD motor neuron with spine-like protrusions, and a close-up of the spines. Figure reproduced and modified under a CC BY 4.0 license from eLife 2019;8:e47918. When Nobel laureate Santiago… Read More

Oct. 31, 2019, 11:00 AM by Leigh MacMillan Bacterial pathogens require nutrient metals to survive and cause disease, and hosts try to protect themselves by hiding metals away — a process called “nutritional immunity.” Bacteria have evolved multiple strategies for getting the metals they need, including the secretion of small… Read More

Oct. 31, 2019, 9:42 AM   by Bill Snyder Diabetes is the leading cause of end-stage renal disease, one of the nation’s most debilitating and expensive medical conditions. In 2016 Medicare spent $35 billion caring for more than 725,000 Americans whose kidneys had failed. Short of mandating universal diabetes treatment,… Read More