Research, News & Discoveries

By: Wendy Bindeman David Cortez, Richard N. Armstrong, Ph.D. Chair for Innovation in Biochemistry and professor of biochemistry, has been appointed chair of the Department of Biochemistry beginning July 1, 2021. Cortez first joined the Department of Biochemistry in 2002 as an assistant professor, and became a professor of biochemistry… Read More

By Lorena Infante Lara Beginning on July 1, the Program for Extracellular Vesicle Research got an upgrade and became one of the nine official centers and institutes associated with the School of Medicine Basic Sciences. The Center for Extracellular Vesicle Research will be led… Read More

By Ashley Brady A new collaborative initiative from the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Basic Sciences, the BRET Office of Career Development’s ASPIRE Program, and Vanderbilt’s Center for Technology Transfer and Commercialization will be supporting a biomedical sciences postdoctoral fellow to lead a start-up company to… Read More

by Marissa Shapiro Jun. 24, 2021, 9:00 AM Series of de-lipidated (“cleared”) mouse brains imaged using light sheet microscopy to reveal neural circuits marked by viral tracing strategies. THE IDEA This may lead to collaboration to look for targets affecting the motor cortex and… Read More

Jun. 22, 2021, 7:39 AM Five monoclonal antibody “cocktails,” including one developed at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), are protective in animal studies against several variant strains of COVID-19, according to a report this week in the journal Nature. The findings suggest that many of the combination antibody therapies currently… Read More

Jun. 17, 2021, 9:00 AM By Jenna Somers Houra Merrikh For the second year in a row, Professor of Biochemistry Houra Merrikh has been named a finalist for the 2021 Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists in the life sciences category for her discovery of a potential solution… Read More

Jun. 17, 2021, 8:30 AM by Paul Govern Presented with the case of a young woman with a novel de novo genetic variant and a puzzling neurological illness, Eric Delpire, PhD, and colleagues saw aspects of the disease recapitulated in miniature when they used CRISPR to engineer the variant in mice.   The team’s report, appearing… Read More

by Marissa Shapiro Jun. 15, 2021, 12:00 PM Craig Lindsley, the William K. Warren, Jr. Chair in Medicine and University Professor of Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Chemistry Craig Lindsley, the William K. Warren, Jr. Chair in Medicine and director of Vanderbilt University’s  Warren… Read More

by Marissa Shapiro Jun. 10, 2021, 9:00 AM THE IDEA Lisa Monteggia, professor of pharmacology, and collaborators have provided evidence about how ketamine works as a rapid-acting antidepressant in the brain. The research reinforces the hypothesis that the glutamate N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor on… Read More

Jun. 8, 2021, 9:53 AM From left, Taylor Smith, MS, Jacek Hawiger, MD, PhD, Jozef Zienkiewicz, PhD, and Yan Liu, MD, and colleagues developed a peptide that may protect against life-threatening microbial inflammation with underlying metabolic syndrome. Photo courtesy Hawiger lab A cell-penetrating peptide developed by researchers at Vanderbilt University… Read More