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A New Pathway for DNA Cross-Link Repair Interstrand cross-links (ICLs) are a highly toxic form of DNA damage in which the two complementary DNA strands are covalently bound together. This form of damage is difficult to repair, so animal cells have evolved the Fanconi anemia (FA) pathway specifically… Read More

Today’s infant formulas are much improved over formulas of decades past, but according to some scientists—and Townsend’s discerning daughter—they’re still a far cry from mothers’ milk. Chemists hope to change that. To create formula that more closely mimics breast milk, researchers like Steve Townsend at Vanderbilt University are trying to make the… Read More

Dynamics of Basement Membrane Repair The basement membrane (BM) is an ancient, highly conserved structure that lies under the basal surface of epithelial cells and wraps around organs such as muscles and nerves. It provides mechanical stiffness and modulates cellular communication by interacting with signaling molecules. Although much… Read More

Organizing Microtubule Asters Microtubules (MTs) are a critical component of the cytoskeleton, playing a role in a range of processes from cell polarization to division. MTs are polymers of αβ-tubulin that grow and shrink from a rapidly changing plus-end and a more slowly changing minus-end to form two… Read More

Vanderbilt University and Oak Ridge National Laboratory are combining their expertise in biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics and computation to explore transformative, interdisciplinary ways to study complex cellular processes to tackle some of the most pressing problems in biology. The collaboration between the university and ORNL was propelled by a May 3 campus… Read More

The rapidly growing field of systems biology attempts to develop mathematical models that both describe and predict complex cellular behavior. Our increasing sophistication in computational statistical approaches has rendered almost routine the process of developing models that “fit” a dataset extremely well. However, most such models fail to predict… Read More

Multidrug Resistance Transporter Dynamics Multidrug resistance promotes cell survival in the presence of toxic compounds such as many antibacterial or cancer chemotherapeutic agents. Often, multidrug resistance results from expression of transport proteins that eject the toxicant from the cell in exchange for Na+ or H+ ions. Researchers believe that… Read More

Biomedical science trainees at Vanderbilt have a new career exploration option starting this fall — they can get a taste of what it means to be a “data scientist.” The Biomedical Research Education and Training (BRET) Office of Career Development’s ASPIRE Programreceived a Burroughs Wellcome Fund (BWF) grant to support a… Read More

Tuberculosis, caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, is a highly infectious lung disease in humans.Unfortunately, resistance to anti-tubercular medicines such as fourth-generation fluoroquinolones is on the rise. In most cases, fluoroquinolone resistance is caused by mutations in a bacterial enzyme called gyrase. Compounds called M. tuberculosis gyrase inhibitors (MGIs) display activity against tuberculosis in cellular… Read More

Vanderbilt University has been awarded a five-year, $8.1-million grant from the National Cancer Institute to serve as a research center in the institute’s prestigious Cancer Systems Biology Consortium. Directed by Dr. Vito Quaranta, professor of biochemistry and pharmacology in the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, the new center will focus on advancing the… Read More