Discoveries

Heidi Hamm, Yun Young Yim By Emily Overway Researchers in the lab of Heidi Hamm, a professor of pharmacology who also holds the Aileen M. Lange and Annie Mary Lyle Chair in Cardiovascular Research, recently published a paper exploring the G protein subunits that interact with the SNARE complex. The… Read More

L-R: Ann Richmond, Chi Yan By Wendy Bindeman Ann Richmond, professor of pharmacology, and Chi Yan, a research assistant professor in the Richmond lab, recently published a study showing that expression of a protein called CD40 can be used to predict response to immunotherapy in malignant melanoma. Read More

By Aaron Conley Stanley Cohen and Vanderbilt Chancellor Joe Wyatt (1986). Houra Merrikh, professor of biochemistry, and Teru Nakagawa, associate professor of molecular physiology and biophysics, have both been selected to receive one-year research awards from the Stanley Cohen Innovation Fund. The awards will support groundbreaking and… Read More

By Sohini Roy People with type 1 diabetes generate little to no insulin, which promotes the absorption of glucose from the blood. The transcriptional coregulator Swi-independent 3 — or Sin3 — switches on and off the genes that drive crucial biological processes during prenatal development, including cellular differentiation, maturation, survival, metabolism,… Read More

By Natalya Ortolano Myosin motors and long actin filaments accumulate at the center of dividing cells to constrict the membrane. When a bouncy ball deforms under the weight of your body, its rubber membrane stretches and contracts. Likewise, the membrane of a cell doubling itself prior to division must accommodate… Read More

By Brad Davidson VIR-CLASP has the potential to find new therapeutic targets during infection by a wide variety of RNA viruses. RNA viruses invade cells and co-opt cellular machinery to replicate and translate their genomic material. To stave off infection until immune cells arrive, host cells rely on “intrinsic immunity… Read More

By Mary Alice Keller Triple-negative breast cancer is a type of breast cancer that tests negative for the three receptors that are commonly found in breast cancer: estrogen receptors, progesterone receptors, and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) receptors. The oncogene MYCN regulates cancer cell growth, proliferation, metabolism, and… Read More

By Francisco Rodriguez Cells detect the nutrients that are in their environment and can adapt depending on what they sense. The class of signaling molecules known as inositol diphosphates or PP-IPs affects cellular shape, nutrient sensing and many other biological processes among organisms as simple as yeast and… Read More

By Sohini Roy The WHO reports that the Marburg virus has an average fatality rate of 50 percent, but fatality rate can be of up to 88 percent depending on the strain and the outbreak. Marburg viruses cause a hemorrhagic fever in humans, with a fatality rate of up to… Read More

By Wendy Bindeman https://cdn.vanderbilt.edu/t2-main/medschool-prd/wp-content/uploads/sites/101/2020/08/Discovery_Richmond-SMWeb-1.mp4   Melanoma is the most common of all cancers. The American Cancer Society estimates that over 100,000 new melanomas will be diagnosed in the U.S. in 2020. While 60 percent of people with metastatic melanoma, an aggressive type of skin cancer, have multiple treatment options… Read More