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Congressional rules regarding gifts to covered federal elected officials
Jan. 27, 2023—Colleagues, As in years past, the Office of Federal Relations (www.vanderbilt.edu/federalrelations) is providing a reminder on the Congressional Rules regarding gifts to covered federal elected officials (including athletic tickets, travel to campus, and meals) and our obligations with respect to reporting lobbying activities made on behalf of the university or using university resources. Attached is...
Study identifies human proteins with segments devoid of genetic variation
Jan. 27, 2023—By Leah Mann The lab of Charles Sanders, professor of biochemistry and the Aileen M. Lange and Annie Mary Lyle Chair for Cardiovascular Research, published a study in Protein Science identifying all human proteins that have at least one segment that does not have any missense mutations in the collection of genes in a gene...
CRISPR screen identifies role for a specific protein in insulin secretion
Jan. 25, 2023—By Leah Mann The labs of Wenbiao Chen, associate professor of molecular physiology and biophysics, and Irina Kaverina, professor of cell and development biology, recently published a study in Molecular Metabolism focused on detecting genes that regulate insulin secretion. The authors demonstrated a new role for the Commander complex—a bound group of 16 proteins—in insulin...
Celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Jan. 16, 2023— Dear Colleagues, Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. On this day, we have the opportunity to reflect on the goals he had for the U.S.: securing voting rights for African Americans, eliminating racial injustice, and upending class oppression wherever we live. The past few years have shown that we have not yet reached the mountaintop,...
Basic Sciences Wellness Rooms
Jan. 11, 2023—Wellness Rooms are available to Vanderbilt faculty, graduate students, postdocs, staff, and visitors. The rooms can be used for lactation, temporary hoteling, and stress-reducing meditation. The School of Medicine Basic Sciences provides two spaces, 715 PRB and 6132 MRB III, to meet these needs. Both rooms feature comfortable chairs, ottomans, Medela breast pumps with sanitizing...
The Island of Misfit Toys
Dec. 5, 2022—By Chuck Sanders My first encounter with the heroic epic genre was in 1966 when I saw “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” the hour-long stop-motion movie produced by Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin. This film is shown, without fail, on network TV every December. Even on black and white TV, the Abominable Snowmonster is absolutely terrifying...
C. difficile may contribute to colorectal cancer: study
Jul. 28, 2022—The bacterium Clostridioides difficile (C. difficile), which causes severe diarrhea and an estimated 400,000 infections annually in the United States, may be a previously unrecognized contributor to colorectal cancer. The findings from human colon cancer specimens, culturing, and mouse models were reported last month by researchers at Johns Hopkins University and Vanderbilt University Medical Center...
Mathers Foundation award supports study of crosstalk between skeletal, immune systems
Jul. 8, 2022—Jim Cassat, MD, PhD, associate professor of Pediatrics, Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, and Biomedical Engineering, has received a three-year, $750,000 award from the G. Harold and Leila Y. Mathers Foundation to support research exploring the interplay between bone homeostasis and infectious disease. The Mathers Foundation’s mission is to “advance knowledge in the life sciences by...
Meet the Basic Sciences Wellness Advisory Council
Jun. 22, 2022—By Emily Overway and Lindsey Guerin In May of 2020, then dean of the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Basic Sciences Larry Marnett formed the Dean’s Advisory Council for Mental Health and Wellness, also known as the Wellness Advisory Council. The council seeks to address the growing mental health crisis within academia by recommending policies...
BioVU celebrates 15 years supporting personalized medicine
Jun. 9, 2022—In 2003, Dan Roden, MD, then director of the Division of Clinical Pharmacology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, imagined a large-scale biobank integrated with electronic health records to help doctors “personalize” medical care for their patients. That vision became BioVU, today one of the world’s largest biobanks, with around 350,000 DNA samples from a single...