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Mitochondria are cellular organelles with their own DNA. Their role in power generation makes them susceptible to oxidative damage, including the formation of DNA-damaging chemical complexes called adducts. While one such adduct, M1dG, is normally excised by cells from the genomic DNA, mitochondria apparently lack this repair mechanism. This month in… Read More

Focus on Mitochondrial DNA Damage DNA damage occurs constantly as a result of physical and chemical insults. Such insults include direct oxidation of the DNA or attack by reactive species generated by the oxidation of lipids. These reactions produce many forms of damage, among them an exocyclic adduct of… Read More

Eleven Vanderbilt University faculty members named to endowed chairs were recognized for their outstanding scholarship and research during a celebration at the Student Life Center Nov. 29: Alissa M. Weaver, Lorraine M. Lopez, Alyssa H. Hasty, David Zald, Mariann R. Piano, Richard B. Simerly, Vsevolod V. Gurevich, Matthew J. Tyska, Daniel J. Read More

The first line of defense against skin cancer is the ability to repair DNA damage caused by UV light. The XPA protein plays an important role in the repair of certain DNA damage, and mutations in this protein have been implicated in xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) disorders, characterized by increased UV… Read More

Craig Lindsley, PhD, the William K. Warren Jr. Professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt, is the 2018 recipient of the Sato Memorial International Award of the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan. Lindsley, co-director of the Vanderbilt Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery (VCNDD), is the 41st recipient of the award, which is administered jointly by the society… Read More

Drivers of Intestinal Tumorigenesis ​A hallmark of all epithelia is the presence of adherens junctions that connect adjacent cells to each other. The junctions are formed through the interaction of the extracellular domains of E-cadherin on the neighboring cells. In turn, the intracellular domain of E-cadherin forms a complex… Read More

The Road to Ubiquitin’s Destruction Ubiquitin is a small (8.5 kDa) protein that is attached singly, or in chains, to lysine residues of other proteins via a complex, three step mechanism. The pattern of ubiquitin addition, referred to as ubiquitination, marks the protein for degradation, alters its function and… Read More

Tracing Cell Origins in the Gut The organs of multicellular animals comprise highly organized aggregates of many cell types, each of which has differentiated from a multi-potent stem cell. Although we have learned much about the process of differentiation and organogenesis through studies of tissues such as bone marrow,… Read More

Jeff Conn, Craig Lindsley, and David Sweatt are included on the Clarivate Analytics list of "2017 Highly Cited Researchers." Highly Cited Researchers from Clarivate Analytics is an annual list recognizing leading researchers in the sciences and social sciences from around the world. The final new list contains about 3,400 Highly Cited Researchers in… Read More

Although dietary salt intake positively correlates with blood pressure, the mechanisms linking salt to hypertension are not well understood. In the Oct. 24 Cell Reports, Annet Kirabo, DVM, M.Sc., Ph.D., and colleagues identify a pathway by which excess sodium contributes to inflammation and hypertension. The researchers found that sodium enters immune system dendritic cells,… Read More