Research, News & Discoveries

Pedro García Barrantes had never heard of Vanderbilt University until he met Joshua Bruner, a graduate student in Craig Lindsley's lab at the Nashville institution. At a young chemists' conference in Brazil in 2011, "everyone else from the U.S. was complaining about their adviser except for Bruner," García Barrantes… Read More

Control of Axon-Mediated Neuronal Degeneration Neuronal cell death by apoptosis plays an important role in development and the establishment of neural circuits. However, if not properly regulated, neuronal apoptosis can lead to serious neurodegenerative disease. Helping to maintain the critical balance between survival and death are the neurotrophins,… Read More

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) has awarded 2018 Gilliam Fellowships for Advanced Study to 45 doctoral student-adviser pairs from across the country. Three are from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. All have demonstrated high promise to become leaders in their fields, says David Asai, HHMI’s senior director for science education. The… Read More

A biochemistry instructor curious about an enzyme discovered in the damaged neurons of people with multiple sclerosis made a leap toward a potential cure for countless neurodegenerative ills. Vanderbilt University’s Amrita Pathak, working with Bruce D. Carter, biochemistry professor and associate director of the Vanderbilt Brain Institute, found that the enzyme… Read More

Since it began 16 years ago, the Vanderbilt Summer Science Academy (VSSA) has provided research experiences for roughly 2,000 undergraduates from colleges around the country. Nearly half are members of under-represented minority groups; many are the first in their families to pursue graduate or medical degrees. Hailing from diverse backgrounds,… Read More

Microtubule organization is essential for various biological processes ranging from cell division to intracellular transport. Microtubules are polymers of tubulin protein that assemble into two basic cellular architectures: bundles and asters. In contrast to bundle formation, the molecular mechanisms underlying aster formation are poorly understood. Marija Zanic, PhD, Ryoma Ohi, PhD, and their colleagues… Read More

The proteins that copy DNA are not perfect. Luckily, our cells can fix broken DNA via a process called homologous recombination repair, which involves proteins like RAD51. RAD51 helps protect DNA from being degraded by cell enzymes as it is copied. David Cortez, PhD, and colleagues reportedlast month in the journal Cell Reports that… Read More

Basement membrane (BM) is an evolutionarily ancient sheet-like scaffold that wraps around most animal tissues. BM protects and provides mechanical stiffness to tissues and regulates development, function, and repair. But how it is repaired after being damaged is poorly understood. Now in a study published in the journal Matrix Biology, Andrea Page-McCaw, PhD, and colleagues have… Read More

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute has awarded 2018 Gilliam Fellowships for Advanced Study to three Vanderbilt University doctoral students and their advisers. The fellowship was created to ensure that a diverse and highly trained workforce is prepared to assume leadership roles in the sciences. The program approaches this by supporting promising… Read More

Dueling Proteins Control Replication Fork Stability A variety of cell stressors may stall the process of DNA replication, and failure to resolve the problem and resume normal progression of the replication fork may lead to DNA damage and/or even cell death. Stalling of the replication fork results in… Read More