Vanderbilt Basic Sciences

by Tom Wilemon A team of Vanderbilt researchers has revealed some of the mechanisms by which polyps develop into colorectal cancer, setting the framework for improved surveillance for the cancer utilizing precision medicine. Their study, published Dec. 14 in Cell, describes findings from a single-cell transcriptomic and imaging atlas… Read More

By Olivia Trani This article was originally published on the Oak Ridge National Laboratory website and was adapted with permission for publication at Vanderbilt University. Water plays several important roles within the human body, even affecting the DNA in our cells. The entire surface of a DNA… Read More

Six current faculty members at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have made this year’s list of scientists whose papers have been cited most frequently by other researchers. They are among 6,600 researchers around the world identified by the global analytics firm Clarivate whose publications rank in the top 1% by… Read More

Kristopher Burkewitz, assistant professor of cell and developmental biology, has been awarded  $100,000 from the American Federation for Aging Research and the Glenn Foundation for Medical Research to research the biological aging process. Burkewitz was one of 10… Read More

On Sunday, November 7, Michael Waterman, former chair of the Department of Biochemistry, passed away. Waterman was chair of biochemistry for 18 years and helped develop the department into a place where faculty could thrive. “Mike believed in empowering faculty,” David Cortez, current chair of the department, said. “He always… Read More

By Wendy Bindeman L-R: Sheila Collins, Ryan Ceddia A trans-institutional team that includes Professor of Medicine and Molecular Physiology and Biophysics Sheila Collins, first author and Collins lab postdoc Ryan Ceddia, and Johns Hopkins collaborators Dr. David Kass and Sumita Mishra recently published a study showing that mice lacking an… Read More

Nerve cells in the brain establish connections or synapses to form complex electrical circuits that keep people thinking and moving. Despite the importance of these synapses in mediating the flow of charged particles between neurons, not much is understood about how these connections are created. Sierra Palumbos David Miller Research… Read More

A molecular switch that regulates the cytoskeleton — the cellular equivalent of our skeleton — is required for the maintenance and integrity of the kidney collecting duct, Vanderbilt researchers have found. The discovery, reported in the Nov. 1 issue of the Journal of Cell Biology, could… Read More

By Wendy Bindeman Sheila Collins, professor of medicine. Sheila Collins, who is a professor of medicine and has a secondary appointment in molecular physiology and biophysics, first author Fubiao Shi, a postdoctoral fellow in the Collins lab, and colleagues have recently identified the transcription factor PPARγ as a novel regulator… Read More

Vanderbilt researchers are reimagining Charles Darwin’s work by communicating how the origin of species might depend largely on the microbiome—the totality of bacteria, viruses, fungi and other organisms—living in or on a host body. Darwin’s On the Origin of Species put forth a seminal and revolutionary thesis for the life sciences in 1859: Populations with a common… Read More