Vanderbilt Basic Sciences

Vanderbilt University again ranked among the nation’s top research institutions receiving funding from the National Institutes of Health, according to the latest data compiled by the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research. The total amount Vanderbilt scholars received across the School of… Read More

James Crowe Jr., MD, director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Center, and Michel Nussenzweig, MD, PhD, of The Rockefeller University, have been jointly awarded the 2022 Harrington Prize for Innovation in Medicine for “groundbreaking work” that enabled the use of human antibodies to treat COVID-19. The announcement was made… Read More

Lipid rafts, a component of the plasma membranes that surround all cells in the human body, are essential in regulating the membranes’ structure, among other functions. But they are hard to study because traditional biochemical methods tend to destroy them. Chuck Sanders, associate dean for research,… Read More

Cannabis is well-known for having an effect on eating behaviors. However, how the natural cannabinoid molecules found in the body regulate feeding and eating is not well researched. Masoud Ghamari-Langroudi, research assistant professor of molecular physiology and biophysics, research assistant professor of pharmacology and faculty affiliate… Read More

By Wendy Bindeman Ambra Pozzi Ambra Pozzi, professor of medicine and of molecular physiology and biophysics, first author Kakali Ghoshal (a postdoc in the Pozzi lab), and colleagues recently published a study showing that supplementation with an analog of a lipid metabolite called epoxyeicosatrienoic acid, which is involved in insulin… Read More

Laboratory and administrative personnel at Vanderbilt University Medical Center were honored March 4 for research excellence during the 18th annual Research Staff Awards Ceremony at the Aertson Hotel in Nashville. Jennifer Pietenpol, PhD, director of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center and VUMC’s Executive Vice President for Research, and Lawrence Marnett, PhD,… Read More

John Wikswo, founder and director of the Vanderbilt Institute for Integrative Biosystems Research and Education and Gordon A. Cain University Professor, is the principal investigator of a $1 million award from the National Science Foundation. The object is to build a pathbreaking… Read More

Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier and Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs C. Cybele Raver honored faculty from across the university at an endowed chair investiture ceremony on campus Feb. 24, conferring the university’s highest scholastic rank on those who had received the designation during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020… Read More

L-R: Ann Richmond, Chi Yan By Wendy Bindeman Ann Richmond, professor of pharmacology, and Chi Yan, a research assistant professor in the Richmond lab, recently published a study showing that expression of a protein called CD40 can be used to predict response to immunotherapy in malignant melanoma. Read More

Many melanoma patients are treated with drugs called BRAF or MEK inhibitors that specifically target the mutant proteins created in cancerous tumors.  These inhibitors can block the tumors’ ability to grow and spread. According to Ann Richmond, Ingram Professor of Cancer Research and professor of pharmacology… Read More