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Biologists who study the malaria mosquito’s “nose” have found that it contains a secondary set of odor sensors that seem to be specially tuned to detect humans. The discovery could aid efforts to figure out how the insects target humans and develop a preference for them. “This appears to be a… Read More

Esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) is an aggressive cancer that is increasing in incidence in the United States. Wael El-Rifai, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues studied the molecular interaction between gene expression, genomics and epigenetics in EAC. In a study published in Scientific Reports, the researchers utilized an integrated approach to analyze changes in gene expression,… Read More

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) have mapped the conformational changes that occur in a protein “notorious” for pumping chemotherapeutic drugs out of cancer cells and blocking medications from reaching the central nervous system.​ Their report, published this week as a letter in the journal Nature, is an important step forward in understanding… Read More

DNA replication actually starts with the synthesis of a short stretch of RNA by the enzyme DNA primase. Extension of the RNA with a similarly short stretch of DNA by DNA polymerase α (pol α) follows before the more efficient and highly processive DNA polymerases take over to finish the… Read More

A multi-year program with pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim complements an already existing collaboration with Vanderbilt University by focusing on the research and development of small molecule compounds targeting the protein SOS (Son of Sevenless). This molecule activates KRAS, a molecular switch that plays a central role in the onset of some of… Read More

Jonathan Irish, Ph.D., and his colleagues have developed a new language, one that can be used to describe and identify cells. The language — marker enrichment modeling, or MEM — assigns a “MEM label” to cells based on certain features of the cell, usually proteins. Irish and his colleagues hope that MEM,… Read More

DNA replication is an extraordinarily complex multi-step process that makes copies of the body’s genetic blueprint. It is necessary for growth and essential to life. Now researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and Vanderbilt University have found evidence that one of those steps may involve the telephone-like transmission of… Read More

The greatest risk factor for gastric cancer is chronic infection by the bacterium, Helicobacter pylori. In a study in mice published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Dana Hardbower, Keith Wilson, M.D., and colleagues found that macrophage activation has a critical role in regulating H. pylori colonization and gastric inflammation.  … Read More

Twelve outstanding faculty members from across the university have been named to the 2017 class of Chancellor Faculty Fellows. The class comprises highly accomplished, recently tenured faculty from the social sciences, life and physical sciences, clinical sciences and humanities, as well as law, mathematics and engineering. Melanie Ohi is an associate professor… Read More

Bacteria respond to their environments – to ensure their own survival and proliferation – using two-component systems (TCSs). These systems consist of a bacterial receptor and a response regulator that changes bacterial behavior by modifying gene expression. Most bacterial receptors and response regulators are exclusive pairs that do not interact… Read More