Research, News & Discoveries

by Bill Snyder Vanderbilt University Medical Center is teaming up with academic, governmental and corporate partners in an unprecedented, fast-tracked global effort to develop antibody-based treatments to protect people exposed to the 2019 novel coronavirus disease, COVID-19. Researchers from the Vanderbilt Vaccine Center (VVC) have rapidly responded to this… Read More

https://cdn.vanderbilt.edu/vu-web/medschool-wpcontent/sites/64/2020/03/23162530/Porter_Updated.mp4   By Stella Child In the last two decades, scientists have found increasing evidence for the contribution of environmental factors to neurodegenerative diseases. Organic solvents, heavy metals, and air pollutants are now all categorized as neurotoxicants, substances that affect the function of the nervous system. A subset of… Read More

Mar. 19, 2020, 9:00 AM by Bill Snyder Stress is a precipitating factor for craving and relapse in cocaine use disorder. A part of the brain known as the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) has been linked to both anxiety and addiction. Guanfacine, a drug that acts on… Read More

Mar. 12, 2020, 9:10 AM by Tom Wilemon Researchers from Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) discovered a role for MYCN in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), a particularly aggressive form of the disease, and identified a potential intervention for further clinical investigation. MYCN is a well-known oncogene that plays a role in… Read More

Mar. 5, 2020, 1:30 PM by Leigh MacMillan Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) — a form of chronic lung disease — is a leading complication of preterm birth affecting infants born before 32 weeks gestation. Exposure to high levels of oxygen (hyperoxia) plays a role in BPD pathogenesis, but the precise molecular… Read More

https://cdn.vanderbilt.edu/vu-web/medschool-wpcontent/sites/64/2020/03/18093522/Hodges.mp4   By Hillary Layden Most human cells contain roughly 6.5 feet of DNA, which must be tightly compacted to fit within the nucleus. Cells compact DNA by wrapping it around proteins called histones, forming a DNA-protein complex called chromatin. “Closed” chromatin is tightly compacted and cannot interact with… Read More

Mar. 10, 2020, 8:00 AM by Leigh MacMillan The cell bodies of peripheral sensory neurons that respond to and transmit information about stimuli including touch, temperature and pain reside in the dorsal root ganglia (DRG). DRG neuron hyperexcitability is correlated with chronic pain. Bruce Carter’s group… Read More

Feb. 27, 2020, 9:53 AM by Bill Snyder Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center are reporting another advance in the understanding and treatment of triple-negative breast cancer, which is particularly aggressive and difficult to treat. Their findings, detailed in the journal Clinical Cancer Research, offer new hope for identifying… Read More

Feb. 27, 2020, 9:14 AM by Sara Eaton The Genetics Society of America has recognized Seth Bordenstein, PhD, an evolutionary geneticist and microbiologist at Vanderbilt University, for an initiative that brings real-world scientific research into middle school, high school and college biology classes. Seth Bordenstein, PhD Bordenstein, Centennial Professor of… Read More

Forty years since its discovery, much remains to be discovered about an enzyme called CaMKII that plays a key role in shaping learning and memory in the brain. Now Roger Colbran, PhD, graduate student Tyler Perfitt and colleagues report in the Journal… Read More