Research, News & Discoveries

Oct. 31, 2019, 9:42 AM   by Bill Snyder Diabetes is the leading cause of end-stage renal disease, one of the nation’s most debilitating and expensive medical conditions. In 2016 Medicare spent $35 billion caring for more than 725,000 Americans whose kidneys had failed. Short of mandating universal diabetes treatment,… Read More

Oct. 31, 2019, 9:25 AM Jeffrey Rathmell, PhD, has been named to receive a distinguished innovator award from the Lupus Research Alliance. (photo by Susan Urmy) by Tom Wilemon Jeffrey Rathmell, PhD, director of the Vanderbilt Center for Immunobiology and Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Immunobiology, is a 2019 recipient of… Read More

By Colbie Chinowsky Drawing of two enterocytes representing Microvillus Inclusion Disease (left and center) and a healthy enterocyte with its microvilli on its apical side. Adapted with permission from Vogel, GF, Janecke, AR, Krainer, IM, Gutleben, K, Witting, B, Mitton, SG, Mansour, S, Ballauff, A, Roland, JT, Engevik, AC, Cutz,… Read More

Congratulations to Justin Marinko for being named the 2020 recipient of The Karpay Award in Structural Biology. “I am deeply honored to win the Karpay award,” Justin said. Justin joined the Sanders Lab in 2016 focusing his research on structural biology and protein folding… Read More

Oct. 24, 2019, 8:55 AM by Tom Wilemon Two Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) investigators have received financial support from Susan G. Komen for breast cancer research. Their projects were among 60 grants totaling $26 million awarded to researchers nationwide. Those initiatives are focused on improving outcomes for metastatic breast cancer,… Read More

Oct. 24, 2019, 9:18 AM The research team studying undiagnosed congenital diarrheas includes, from left, Matt Tyska, PhD, James Goldenring, MD, PhD, Joseph Roland, PhD, Sari Acra, MD, MPH, and Hernan Correa, MD. (photo by Susan Urmy) by Christina Echegaray Researchers and pediatric gastroenterologists at four institutions, including Vanderbilt University… Read More

By Coleman Harris Caption: “Scanning electron micrograph of S. aureus bacteria escaping destruction by human white blood cells” by NIAID licensed under CC BY 2.0. Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is a pathogen that often causes the typical “staph infections” that form abscesses or boils.  The pathogen maximizes its ability to… Read More

By Amanda N. John­­­son Reprinted with permission from ACS Nano2019, 13, 10, 10939-10960. Copyright 2019 American Chemical Society. A recent study reported in ACS Nano adds vaccination to the list of human activities where the means to an end are just as important as the end itself. Read More

Oct. 17, 2019, 12:00 PM by Leigh MacMillan Dendritic “spines” — small protrusions on the receiving side of the connection (synapse) between two nerve cells — are recognized as key functional components of neuronal circuits in mammals. The shapes and numbers of spines are regulated by neuronal activity and correlate… Read More

Oct. 17, 2019, 8:50 AM   by Doug Campbell Nancy Brown, MD, Hugh J. Morgan Professor and chair of Vanderbilt’s Department of Medicine, was recently elected a Master of the American College of Physicians. Nancy Brown, MD Brown is stepping down from her role as the department’s leader to become… Read More