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A Middle Tennessee native, Chase Spurlock, PhD’14, was drawn to Vanderbilt University for its excellence in healthcare and science. A project he completed in graduate school ignited in him a desire to impact patient lives through academic-industry partnerships, and he has not looked back since. Read More

In the hunt for new therapeutics for cancer and infectious diseases, lasso peptides prove to be a catch. Their knot-like structures afford these molecules high stability and diverse biological activities, making them a promising avenue for new therapeutics. To better unleash their clinical potential, a team co-led by Doug Mitchell developed LassoESM, a new large language model for predicting lasso peptide properties. Read More

A new image analysis tool called TrueSpot has the capacity to overhaul the quantity and quality of usable data that can be obtained from fluorescence microscopy, which is used across an enormous range of biological, biomedical, and physical research. Read More

Meet Hannah Waterman, a fifth year Ph.D. candidate in the lab of Alan Cherrington in the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics. Read More

Meet David Stiles, a senior financial analyst for the School of Medicine Basic Sciences. Read More

In addition to fueling cutting-edge research, a new molecular imaging system will serve as a cornerstone resource at the Mass Spectrometry Research Center, which is recognized nationally as a hub for molecular imaging and technology development. It will be made accessible to collaborators across academia, national labs, and industry, ensuring broad impact. Read More

Started in June 2025, a new collaborative science project called diffUSE involving Vanderbilt University, Cornell University, and the University of California, San Francisco, could be the next watershed moment. The $5 million, three-year project led by the Astera Institute will advance our understanding of protein motion. Using diffuse scattering, an overlooked signal measured by X-ray crystallography, the project will determine how protein dynamics are characterized, leading to a new paradigm in dynamic structural biology. Read More

The Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Basic Sciences welcomed 42 new graduate students into its Interdisciplinary Graduate Program and Quantitative and Chemical Biology Program through orientation events and the Simple Beginnings ceremony. These academic programs combine coursework and research to guide students toward earning a Ph.D. and careers in the biomedical sciences. Read More

Prashant Donthamsetti has received a prestigious NIH Director’s Pioneer Award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. His project will use a new platform called Tag-Guided Drug to uncover how specific dopamine signaling proteins contribute to addiction. This work paves the way for more precise and effective addiction therapies. Read More