Research, News & Discoveries

Vanderbilt researchers are reimagining Charles Darwin’s work by communicating how the origin of species might depend largely on the microbiome—the totality of bacteria, viruses, fungi and other organisms—living in or on a host body. Darwin’s On the Origin of Species put forth a seminal and revolutionary thesis for the life sciences in 1859: Populations with a common… Read More

The V Foundation for Cancer Research has awarded a $600,000 grant to Scott Hiebert, PhD, professor of Biochemistry and Medicine, to pursue a possible precision therapy for a type of sarcoma that predominantly affects children. Scott Hiebert, PhD Hiebert, the Hortense B. Ingram Professor of Cancer Research, will develop a… Read More

Researchers have confirmed that due to daily circadian rhythms regulating metabolism, when you eat is as important as the how much and what you eat when trying to gain, lose or maintain weight. Carl Johnson, professor of biological sciences, collaborated with graduate student Kevin P. Kelly to test how the timing of daily meals and snacks throughout the day affects weight maintenance. With 24-hour access to… Read More

A combination of two broadly acting monoclonal antibodies isolated by researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center protected non-human primates from ebolavirus disease, which causes severe and often-fatal hemorrhagic fever in humans. Their findings, published this week in the journal Cell, bring closer to development the first clinical therapy effective… Read More

Type 2 diabetes is characterized by chronic hyperglycemia (high blood glucose) and inflammation, which are associated with increased levels of circulating prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) — a mediator of inflammation. Maureen Gannon, PhD, and colleagues previously showed that blocking one of the PGE2 receptors, EP3, promoted insulin-secreting… Read More

Seth Zost, PhD, a research fellow in the laboratory of James E. Crowe Jr., MD, director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Center, has been awarded a major international prize for his research on COVID-19 and other life-threatening viral diseases. The Claude Hannoun Prize for Best Body of Work is… Read More

An editorial, written by president of The Protein Society Chuck Sanders,  appears in the October 2021 issue of the Society’s newsletter. It came to my attention that Oswald Avery is buried here in Nashville at the atmospheric Mt. Olivet Cemetery—I had been told that my Dean,… Read More

THE IDEA Ketamine has been gaining interest over the past several years as a fast-acting antidepressant. Past research shows that ketamine has antidepressant effects, especially for those who have treatment-resistant depression. Lisa Monteggia, professor of pharmacology and director of the Vanderbilt Brain Institute, furthered her prolific research… Read More

Research led by Chuck Sanders, associate dean for research in the School of Medicine Basic Sciences and  professor of biochemistry & medicine, and first-author Tucker Apgar, an undergraduate student in the Sanders Lab, compiled the first comprehensive list of genes and proteins that cause the 70 most common genetic diseases. Read More

Cellular changes in the stomach lining, called metaplasia, increase the risk for gastric cancer, the third leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide.  Two types of metaplasia are observed in the human stomach: pyloric metaplasia, initiated from spasmolytic polypeptide-expressing metaplasia (SPEM) cells, and intestinal metaplasia, which can represent a more advanced… Read More