Lorena Infante Lara

Researchers from the School of Medicine Basic Sciences recently developed an analytical tool called EV Fingerprinting that could lead to the use of “liquid biopsies” as a substitute for traditional biopsies for certain patients or diseases. Read More

The Russell G. Hamilton Graduate Leadership Institute, an initiative from the Vanderbilt University Graduate School, recognized over 130 students from the School of Medicine Basic Sciences with awards during the 2023–24 academic year. Read More

Using computer-aided drug design, the labs of Heidi Hamm, Jens Meiler, and Craig Lindsley generated a novel series of biologically active compounds that can serve as a basis for anti–blood clot preventative drugs. Read More

New work by Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology Bill Tansey and colleagues has determined that a new type of inhibitor—a WINi—targets cancer cells in a novel way and suggests exploiting this pathway in future anticancer drug development efforts. Read More

Benjamin P. Brown, assistant professor of pharmacology, and colleagues in the departments of molecular physiology and biophysics, pharmacology, and chemistry, have determined that AlphaFold2 can be used to generate approximations of relative conformational preferences of proteins, which will help researchers better understand a protein’s structure and function across a range of conditions and mutational states. Read More

Ken Lau, professor of cell and developmental biology, and colleagues have laid out the principles governing the biology of early, precancerous lesions, which are different from the principles that govern cancers. Their authoritative perspective was published in Cancer Discovery in April 2024. Read More

The labs of Emily Hodges, assistant professor of biochemistry, and Tony Capra, associate professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco, have devised a method to separate the relative contributions of cis vs. trans regulatory mechanisms to gene regulatory divergence between species. Read More

Assistant professor of pharmacology Quynh Anh Nguyen spearheaded research that points to a previously unidentified region of the hippocampus as responsible for epileptic seizures. The work could lead to new avenues of treatment to help epilepsy patients control their seizures. Read More

Antentor Hinton Jr. spearheaded a collaboration with labs from across Vanderbilt University, the U.S., and Brazil to create 3D maps of mitochondria inside brown adipose tissue, which may help researchers identify potential therapies to treat metabolic ailments. Read More

The lab of Professor of Biochemistry Fred Guengerich has proposed a paradigm shift in the understanding of a critical chemical reaction involved in sterol biosynthesis. Read More