Research, News & Discoveries

James Crowe Jr., MD, director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Center, and Michel Nussenzweig, MD, PhD, of The Rockefeller University, have been jointly awarded the 2022 Harrington Prize for Innovation in Medicine for “groundbreaking work” that enabled the use of human antibodies to treat COVID-19. The announcement was made… Read More

Lipid rafts, a component of the plasma membranes that surround all cells in the human body, are essential in regulating the membranes’ structure, among other functions. But they are hard to study because traditional biochemical methods tend to destroy them. Chuck Sanders, associate dean for research,… Read More

Cannabis is well-known for having an effect on eating behaviors. However, how the natural cannabinoid molecules found in the body regulate feeding and eating is not well researched. Masoud Ghamari-Langroudi, research assistant professor of molecular physiology and biophysics, research assistant professor of pharmacology and faculty affiliate… Read More

The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) has inducted Jennifer Pietenpol, PhD, and Yu Shyr, PhD, into the 2022 class of Fellows of the AACR Academy. The mission of the AACR Academy is to recognize and honor distinguished scientists whose scientific contributions have propelled significant innovation and progress against cancer. Read More

By Wendy Bindeman Ambra Pozzi Ambra Pozzi, professor of medicine and of molecular physiology and biophysics, first author Kakali Ghoshal (a postdoc in the Pozzi lab), and colleagues recently published a study showing that supplementation with an analog of a lipid metabolite called epoxyeicosatrienoic acid, which is involved in insulin… Read More

Laboratory and administrative personnel at Vanderbilt University Medical Center were honored March 4 for research excellence during the 18th annual Research Staff Awards Ceremony at the Aertson Hotel in Nashville. Jennifer Pietenpol, PhD, director of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center and VUMC’s Executive Vice President for Research, and Lawrence Marnett, PhD,… Read More

John Wikswo, founder and director of the Vanderbilt Institute for Integrative Biosystems Research and Education and Gordon A. Cain University Professor, is the principal investigator of a $1 million award from the National Science Foundation. The object is to build a pathbreaking… Read More

Cancer cells metastasize, or spread to different parts of the body, by escaping from a primary tumor and invading neighboring tissues. To penetrate normal tissue barriers, migrating cancer cells form membrane protrusions called invadopodia that degrade the surrounding extracellular matrix (ECM).  Aron Parekh, PhD, and colleagues… Read More

Heidi Hamm, Yun Young Yim By Emily Overway Researchers in the lab of Heidi Hamm, a professor of pharmacology who also holds the Aileen M. Lange and Annie Mary Lyle Chair in Cardiovascular Research, recently published a paper exploring the G protein subunits that interact with the SNARE complex. The… Read More

Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier and Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs C. Cybele Raver honored faculty from across the university at an endowed chair investiture ceremony on campus Feb. 24, conferring the university’s highest scholastic rank on those who had received the designation during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020… Read More