Molecular Physiology And Biophysics

Bingshan Li and his lab are changing the paradigm of how geneticists can identify risk genes for schizophrenia, enabling new studies into its underlying biology and opening new doors for the development of treatments against it. Read More

A new image analysis tool called TrueSpot has the capacity to overhaul the quantity and quality of usable data that can be obtained from fluorescence microscopy, which is used across an enormous range of biological, biomedical, and physical research. Read More

Meet Hannah Waterman, a fifth year Ph.D. candidate in the lab of Alan Cherrington in the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics. Read More

Started in June 2025, a new collaborative science project called diffUSE involving Vanderbilt University, Cornell University, and the University of California, San Francisco, could be the next watershed moment. The $5 million, three-year project led by the Astera Institute will advance our understanding of protein motion. Using diffuse scattering, an overlooked signal measured by X-ray crystallography, the project will determine how protein dynamics are characterized, leading to a new paradigm in dynamic structural biology. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers probe the mysteries of an enzyme that could be used as a tool in basic research and medicinal chemistry. Read More

Assistant Professor of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics and Principal Investigator Stephanie Wankowicz explores how protein movement influences function. Read More

With a new method, researchers have captured a high-resolution metabolic “map” of how cells orchestrate glucose processing, revealing a hidden world where organelles and molecular complexes collaborate when responding to a rush of nutrients. The results of the pioneering work provide insights into an organizational and molecular framework that can be used to study how metabolic processes are disrupted in diseases and aging. Read More

The Center for AI in Protein Dynamics launched the Biomedical and Computational Discovery Experience, a new, one-week program designed to introduce high school students with little or no prior experience to the world of biomedical research. Read More

In a recent study, Vanderbilt researchers address a significant gap in our understanding of how noncoding regions of the genome regulate important biological processes, such as X-chromosome inactivation. They use an innovative, single-cell approach to uncover new mechanistic insights into how specific long noncoding RNAs control critical gene regulation events. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers developed a deep-learning tool, RNAmigos2, that accelerates the discovery of RNA-targeting small-molecule drugs by 10,000 times compared to traditional methods, unlocking a promising new frontier in medicine. Read More