Discoveries

Photoperiod, or length of day, influences seasonal changes in disorders such as depression and bipolar disorder, with these changes being more prevalent in females. Not incidentally, there are known sex differences in the brain’s reward pathway, where release of dopamine into the nucleus accumbens (NAc) has been implicated in mood… Read More

Vanderbilt University leaders hosted visitors from the health care investment firm Deerfield Management, including its president and managing partner, James Flynn, on Feb. 23 for a series of events celebrating the ongoing collaboration between Vanderbilt and Deerfield to rapidly advance new therapeutics from the research bench… Read More

By Leah Mann Professor Chuck Sanders Chuck Sanders, Aileen M. Lange and Annie Mary Lyle Chair of Cardiovascular Research and professor of biochemistry and medicine, has recently been promoted from associate dean for research to vice dean of the Vanderbilt School of Medicine Basic Sciences. Sanders received his Ph.D. in… Read More

High density lipoprotein (HDL) is often referred to as “good cholesterol.” However, cholesterol is just one of many types of cargo HDL can carry. In addition to shuttling cholesterol from blood to the liver, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) can also transport proteins, metabolites and small RNAs (sRNA). The discovery of HDL’s… Read More

Five Vanderbilt University and Vanderbilt University Medical Center faculty members were elected as 2022 fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. They were selected by a group of their AAAS peers.   “The ranks of AAAS fellows include the likes of W.E.B. Du Bois,… Read More

By Caroline Cencer Anne Hatmaker Fungal diseases caused by pathogenic fungi such as molds affect millions of people worldwide every year. Despite the high prevalence of fungal diseases, the mechanism of infection is not well understood. The laboratory of Professor of Biological Sciences Antonis Rokas, led by graduate student Anne… Read More

Neil Osheroff, PhD, professor of Biochemistry and Medicine, is part of an international research collaboration resulting in what is on track to be the first new antibiotic treatment for uncomplicated urinary tract infections (uUTI) in more than 20 years. “We now have a direct path connecting the work conducted in our… Read More

Mutations in the gene MYO5B cause microvillus inclusion disease (MVID), which prevents nutrient absorption in the intestines and is characterized by severe watery diarrhea that typically starts in the first hours after birth. People with MVID usually require lifelong intravenous feedings (parenteral nutrition) or small bowel transplantation. … Read More

By Leah Mann Charles Sanders, Ph.D. The lab of Charles Sanders, professor of biochemistry and the Aileen M. Lange and Annie Mary Lyle Chair for Cardiovascular Research, published a study in Protein Science identifying all human proteins that have at least one segment that does not have… Read More

To understand a protein’s structure is to understand its function, says structural and chemical biologist Jens Meiler, PhD, distinguished research professor of Chemistry. It can take a PhD student up to five sleep-deprived years to determine the structure of a single protein, and of the 20,000 human proteins, only about… Read More