Research, News & Discoveries

Niswender’s project seeks to understand why levels of mGlu7 are reduced in Rett syndrome and to test a new therapeutic approach using DNA molecules to restore those levels. This work could pave the way for new drug therapies to address symptoms of Rett syndrome and related disorders, while also advancing advocacy and visibility for these conditions in the scientific community. Read More

They are among 6,868 scientists worldwide whose papers rank in the top 1% by citations for their fields of research and publication year in the Web of Science Core Collection over the past 11 years. Read More

For our latest Alum Answers feature, meet Dave Vigerust, PhD’04, who trained as a scientist in Vanderbilt’s IGP umbrella program and then in the Cellular and Molecular Pathology program. He has spent his career interfacing between basic research and the clinic and is now the chief scientific and strategy officer of three companies. Read More

Long-time collaborators and friends Chuck Sanders and Dr. Al George sat down for a Thanksgiving conversation focused on fainting goats, sacred cows, and disordered muscles in humans. Read More

Kate is a graduate student in the Biochemistry Graduate Program and a member of the Sanders lab since 2020. Her research focuses on the potassium channel KCNQ1 and mutations that cause a cardiac disorder called type 1 long QT syndrome (LQT1). Sanders lab researchers have determined that mistrafficking is a common cause of KCNQ1 dysfunction in LQT1. Kate’s effort to search for small molecules that might remedy this mistrafficking provides an early foundation for possible drug discovery efforts to treat LQT1 and related cardiac disorders. Read More

Meet Josh Luffman, construction and project manager in the facilities, infrastructure and risk management group within the School of Medicine Basic Sciences. Read More

A new potential treatment for schizophrenia discovered through the Warren Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery at Vanderbilt University has entered phase 1 clinical trials, marking the fifth WCNDD therapeutic to advance into human testing. Read More

To honor and continue the legacy of Richard Caprioli, Ph.D., Stanford Moore Chair in Biochemistry and Director Emeritus of the Mass Spectrometry Research Center, the Richard Caprioli Basic Sciences Research Award for Technology Education Fund was established to allow Vanderbilt University Ph.D. students in the School of Medicine to pursue an opportunity to obtain hands-on training and education in one or more new technologies outside of those obtained in their graduate research training. The scholarship will be awarded to a Ph.D. student to enhance the approach to their research program. Read More

The Center for Computational Systems Biology hosted its inaugural Symposium on AI, Spatial & Systems Biology. The two-day event highlighted how emerging 3D artificial intelligence technologies are transforming biomedical research, ushering in a new era of discovery that bridges molecular, cellular, and systems-level understanding of biology. Read More

Bingshan Li and his lab are changing the paradigm of how geneticists can identify risk genes for schizophrenia, enabling new studies into its underlying biology and opening new doors for the development of treatments against it. Read More