Research, News & Discoveries

Dec. 20, 2018, 10:16 AM by Kelsey Herbers Raymond Harris, MD, Ann and Roscoe R. Robinson Professor of Nephrology and director of the Vanderbilt Center for Kidney Disease, has been appointed co-chair of the American Society of Nephrology’s (ASN) Kidney Health Initiative (KHI). Raymond Harris, MD The… Read More

Exocytic vesicles fuse with the plasma membrane (PM) through the action of SNARE proteins, which in turn, are delivered to the vesicles by multisubunit protein tethering complexes. One such complex is the exocyst, comprising two tetrameric subcomplexes, SC1 (composed of SEC3, SEC5, SEC6, and SEC8) and SC2 (composed of SEC10,… Read More

Congratulations to Caleigh Azumaya, of the Nakagawa Lab, for being selected the 2019 recipient of The Anne Karpay Award in Structural Biology.  Caleigh was chosen for her ability to perform outstanding research and for her collegiality and willingness to engage those around her.  Caleigh will present the… Read More

Figure reproduced under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license from A. M. Fenix, et al. (2018) eLife, published December 12, DOI: 10.7554/eLife.42144. The sarcomere is a repeating unit of interdigitating actin and myosin filaments that serves as the building blocks of the myofibrils in striated muscle cells. Sarcomeres are demarcated… Read More

In DNA, abasic sites (apurinic/apyrimidinic or AP sites) occur through spontaneous hydrolysis of the glycosidic bond that joins the base to the deoxyribose ring (a common reaction following formation of some kinds of DNA adducts) or through the action of DNA glycosylases during repair of damaged bases. In double-stranded DNA,… Read More

Dec. 13, 2018, 10:15 AM by Bill Snyder Eosinophils are a type of white blood cell that plays many roles in the body, including helping to maintain metabolic homeostasis, the steady state that ensures the body is adequately fueled and waste is eliminated. Previous studies have found the adipose (fatty)… Read More

Dec. 13, 2018, 10:15 AM by Bill Snyder Eosinophils are a type of white blood cell that plays many roles in the body, including helping to maintain metabolic homeostasis, the steady state that ensures the body is adequately fueled and waste is eliminated. Previous studies have found the adipose (fatty)… Read More

Dec. 13, 2018, 10:00 AM by Leigh MacMillan Immune checkpoint inhibitors — cancer therapies that remove the “brakes” on the adaptive anti-tumor immune response — have had remarkable success in melanoma and lung cancer. Response rates to these immunotherapies in breast cancer have been disappointing, perhaps because breast cancers are… Read More

Dec. 13, 2018, 9:45 AM by Bill Snyder (iStock) The exocyst is a protein complex essential for life, that is comprised of eight subunits and is a crucial component in vesicle trafficking. The mechanisms by which exocysts assemble and deliver vesicles containing important biological materials to the cell surface has… Read More

Figure courtesy of A.R. Greenplate. Copyright 2018. Cytomics, the “omics” of cell identity, offers the opportunity to systematically identify all cells in a tissue or patient sample, and the recent advent of high-dimensional flow and mass cytometry to the cytomics arsenal has markedly increased its power. Cytomics is particularly valuable… Read More