News & Discoveries
A day in the lab with Caroline Cencer
Aug. 12, 2022—Spend a day in the Tyska lab with graduate student Caroline Cencer via this TikTok video! @CarolineCencer @TyskaLabActual
Researchers create algorithm to help predict cancer risk associated with tumor variants
Aug. 9, 2022—Vanderbilt researchers have developed an active machine learning approach to predict the effects of tumor variants of unknown significance, or VUS, on sensitivity to chemotherapy. VUS, mutated bits of DNA with unknown impacts on cancer risk, are constantly being identified. The growing number of rare VUS makes it imperative for scientists to analyze them and...
Billy Hudson’s Aspirnaut program featured on NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt on August 2nd.
Aug. 3, 2022—In Grapevine, Arkansas students spent more than two hours on the school bus every day for years. Local scientist Billy Hudson saw that time as an opportunity to create a “magic” school bus with internet and computers where students could spend time learning. Now, more than a decade later, Hudson and his wife have taken...
Researchers find potential new target against colorectal cancer
Aug. 2, 2022—Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have discovered a potential new target in the fight against colorectal cancer, the nation’s third most common malignancy and, next to lung cancer, the second leading cancer killer. This month in the journal Gastroenterology, R. Daniel Beauchamp, MD, Anna Means, PhD, and colleagues report that a cell-signaling protein/chemokine called...
Study reveals need for matching targeted therapies with EGFR subtypes
Jul. 28, 2022—New research from Vanderbilt investigators suggests that clinicians should take a deeper dive into distinguishing EGFR mutations when prescribing targeted therapies for non-small-cell lung cancers. EGFR exon 19 deletion mutations are the most common EGFR mutations in patients with lung cancer. However, the term “exon 19 deletion” is a catch-all phrase used to denote more...
C. difficile may contribute to colorectal cancer: study
Jul. 28, 2022—The bacterium Clostridioides difficile (C. difficile), which causes severe diarrhea and an estimated 400,000 infections annually in the United States, may be a previously unrecognized contributor to colorectal cancer. The findings from human colon cancer specimens, culturing, and mouse models were reported last month by researchers at Johns Hopkins University and Vanderbilt University Medical Center...
Weight cycling increases diabetes risk
Jul. 19, 2022—Alyssa Hasty, Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, specializes in immunometabolism, specifically on the role that the immune system plays in obesity and metabolic disease. Recent work from her lab explored the changes in immune cell populations in fat during obesity, weight loss, and weight cycling. The work, led by recent Ph.D. graduate...
Signals from dying cells are necessary for stem cell differentiation
Jul. 15, 2022—A Vanderbilt laboratory is investigating the sequence of events necessary for the differentiation of stem cells into heart cells—a key step in embryonic development. Postdoctoral fellow Loic Fort and Louise B. McGavock Professor and Chair of Cell and Developmental Biology Ian Macara published their most recent discoveries on this topic in Nature Cell Biology. Associate...
Vanderbilt MSTP students receive P.E.O. Scholar Awards
Jul. 15, 2022—Margaret Axelrod, PhD, Rachel Brown, PhD, and Simone Herzberg, aspiring physician-scientists in Vanderbilt University’s Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP), are among this year’s recipients of highly competitive P.E.O. Scholar Awards. Recipients of the $20,000 awards from P.E.O. International, a philanthropic organization based in Des Moines, Iowa, are women from the United States and Canada pursuing...
Grad student Shelton selected as Vanderbilt Prize Student Scholar
Jul. 15, 2022—Catherine Shelton, a graduate student in the Microbe-Host Interactions PhD program at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, has been selected as the 2022 Vanderbilt Prize Student Scholar. She will receive a $1,000 cash prize and will be mentored by the recipient of the 2022 Vanderbilt Prize in Biomedical Science, Ruth Lehmann, PhD, a world renowned developmental...