Research, News & Discoveries

Congratulations to our School of Medicine Basic Sciences faculty members who were promoted or received new appointments between July and September 2025. These individuals significantly enrich our pursuit of pathbreaking research and contribute to the growth and success of our school. Read More

In a heartwarming tribute to a remarkable career, more than 70 of his former graduate students and postdoctoral scholars recently traveled from across the globe for a three-day festivity on Oct. 3–5 to celebrate Larry Marnett’s 50 years in academia. Read More

Tune in to Professor of Biochemistry Chuck Sanders' yearly Halloween interview, this year featuring Maud Menten, co-creator of the Michaelis-Menten enzyme kinetics equation. Read More

Vanderbilt’s Dr. Benjamin P. Brown is improving the way the field of drug discovery creates machine learning algorithms to predict a protein’s interactions with a small molecule. These improvements bring ML closer to fulfilling its potential in the field—something that has not been realized after more than a decade of work. Read More

Vanderbilt has been training physician-scientists for more than 60 years. Many graduates have gone on to leadership positions in academia, government, industry and clinical practice. Read More

Prior to Akil’s remarks, the 2025 Vanderbilt Prize Student Scholar, Kimberly Bress, an MD-PhD candidate mentored by Akil, briefly described her dissertation research, which applies functional magnetic resonance imaging to study facial expressions (nonverbal communication) in people with autism spectrum disorder. Read More

The Vanderbilt Vision Research Center was founded in 1989 and secured the National Eye Institute core grant that still supports it; the grant will provide approximately $3.3 million over the current five-year funding period. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers led by Ann Richmond have identified a promising drug combination that targets three key pathways in advanced melanoma, potentially restoring the immune response in patients resistant to standard immunotherapy. Although the work is preclinical, the use of drugs already in clinical trials for other conditions could accelerate testing in humans. Read More

Overleaf is a web-based LaTeX code editor that enables users to write, edit and publish scientific documents. It simplifies the creation of complex documents with precise layouts by incorporating equations, figures and bibliographies seamlessly, making it ideal for structured writing and eliminating the need to install LaTeX software locally. It is now available to Vanderbilt students, faculty and staff free of charge. Read More

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