Discoveries

  • Closeup of doctor's hands, vaccine, and arm. The doctor is wearing blue nitrile groves and a smart watch. The syringe is uncapped - the doctor is holding it as if about to give the patient the shot.

    Targeting NA to protect against lethal avian flu infection

    By Sohini Roy New research can lead to improved vaccines against the flu, including strains such as H7N9 and antiviral-resistant strains. Image by Heather Hazzan, SELF Magazine. Published under a CC BY 2.0 license. Obtained from Flickr. Asian lineage avian influenza virus (H7N9) is… Read More

    Jan. 22, 2020

  • Close up of a white mouse drinking something from a silver tube. The mouse is in its cage and is looking at the camera and holding the drinking tube with one paw. A yellow container can be seen in the lower right corner. The bottom of the cage is littered with shavings.

    Of mice and tailgaters: Identifying neural circuitry involved in binge drinking

    By Deborah Roby A mouse drinking from a water dispenser. Published under a CC0 1.0 license. Researchers at the Vanderbilt Center for Addiction Research, along with collaborators at MIT and Salk Institute, have determined a neurological pathway that may be used to determine a… Read More

    Dec. 19, 2019

  • 3D rendering of a brain, viewed from the coronal plane, on a gray background. Red spheres with plus signs surround the brain - some are in better focus than others, giving the image an additional 3D feel.

    Fight or flight – Flexibly

    By Julia Thompson Artist’s rendering of a mental health concept, by Quince Media. Image reproduced under a CC BY 4.0 license. Fear is a crucial emotion for human survival. Without the ability to experience fear in response to possible threats in the environment, it is all too easy… Read More

    Dec. 19, 2019

  • Vanderbilt University

    Barring normal skin barrier formation

    By Suneethi Sivakumaran Proposed mechanism of skin barrier formation. SDR9C7-catalyzed oxidation of linoleate in ceramides is required for covalent binding to the protein matrix and sealing of the water permeability barrier. Diagram courtesy of Alan Brash. Human skin has three major layers: epidermis, dermis, and hypodermis. Epidermis is the outermost… Read More

    Dec. 10, 2019

  • To B or not to B (mature)

    To B or not to B (mature)

    By Cassandra Awgulewitsch   A 3D drawing of a B cell. From Blausen.com staff (2014). “Medical gallery of Blausen Medical 2014”. WikiJournal of Medicine 1 (2). DOI:10.15347/wjm/2014.010. ISSN 2002-4436. Reproduced under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license. Kristy Stengel, a postdoc in… Read More

    Dec. 5, 2019

  • Vanderbilt University

    Anatomy of a toxin pore

    By Jaime Jensen An artist’s rendering of the pore-forming action of a C. difficile binary toxin. Courtesy of the artist. Eve Moll 2019. This article originally appeared in the Nature Research Microbiology Community blog. The bacterium Clostridioides* difficile (C. diff) has been called many things: a superbug,… Read More

    Nov. 27, 2019

  • Vanderbilt University

    Making ends meet, and how to avoid a (replication) hangover

    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

    Nov. 8, 2019

  • Fluorescence image of two human epithelial cells (bright purple) with their apical ends pointing in opposite directions. You can see the highest concentration of orange (actin) in rods on their apical sides (very vivid), and some orange rods along the outside border of the cells (less vivid).

    When G-actin is set free

    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

    Nov. 7, 2019

  • The discovery of worms’ many spines

    The discovery of worms’ many spines

    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

    Nov. 7, 2019

  • Pencil drawing of two diseased and a healthy enterocyte. Different cellular structures are shaded in different colors. Most important are the microvilli. The healthy enterocyte shows tall, brush border microvilli (green) pointing up and tipped with orange. There are a few speckles of orange throughout the cell (“secretory granules”). The diseased enterocytes show very few microvilli on the apical surface of the cells, and, where present, are shorter than in the healthy cell. There is a lot more orange in the diseased cells. The MVID cells also have clumps of microvilli on the inside.

    Help! Microvilli trapped inside cells!

    By Colbie Chinowsky Drawing of two enterocytes representing Microvillus Inclusion Disease (left and center) and a healthy enterocyte with its microvilli on its apical side. Adapted with permission from Vogel, GF, Janecke, AR, Krainer, IM, Gutleben, K, Witting, B, Mitton, SG, Mansour, S, Ballauff, A, Roland, JT, Engevik, AC, Cutz,… Read More

    Oct. 28, 2019