Eric Skaar

The Vanderbilt University Medical Center has received $8 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health and has allotted an additional $4 million to establish a new biosafety level 3 laboratory on campus. This funding was possible thanks in large part to the efforts of Eric Skaar, director of VI4—the Vanderbilt Institute for Infection, Immunology and Inflammation—as well as the VUMC Office of Research. Read More

Targeting iron metabolism in immune system cells may offer a new approach for treating systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) — the most common form of the chronic autoimmune disease lupus. A multidisciplinary team of investigators at Vanderbilt University Medical Center has discovered that blocking an iron uptake receptor reduces disease pathology… Read More

Vanderbilt University Medical Center has been awarded a nearly $8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to construct a state-of-the-art BioSafety Level 3 (BSL3) facility for research involving the COVID-19 virus, anthrax and other dangerous microorganisms. VUMC currently has two BSL3 labs, but they are small, outdated and… Read More

Staphylococcus aureus (“staph”) is an increasingly antibiotic-resistant bacterial pathogen that can cause a variety of life-threatening illnesses.  Researchers at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine have developed integrated molecular imaging techniques that can produce 3D views of the battle between invading pathogens and the body’s immune defenses down… Read More

We need zinc: one-tenth of the proteins in our cells require this metal for their normal functions in all aspects of cell metabolism. We acquire zinc by eating it — in foods or multivitamin supplements — but up to 30% of people in some parts of the world are at… Read More

The pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii can survive on hospital surfaces — without water — for months, an ability that has helped it become a leading cause of hospital-acquired infections. Now, a team of Vanderbilt researchers has discovered a mechanism this bug uses to live in a dried-out state: it produces “hydrophilin”… Read More

Vanderbilt researchers have identified a critical regulatory factor in Bacillus anthracis, the bacterium that causes the disease anthrax and has been used as a biological weapon. The findings, reported in the journal Nature Communications, provide new insights into bacterial gene regulation and may guide novel antibacterial therapeutic… Read More

Patients with autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) have higher blood levels of the protein S100A9, but the source of this protein has not been identified. Andrew Monteith, PhD, Eric Skaar, PhD, MPH, and colleagues reasoned… Read More