News
Rasmussen named Vanderbilt Prize Student Scholar
Jul. 19, 2019—Jul. 18, 2019, 10:02 AM by Bill Snyder Megan Rasmussen, a PhD student in the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, has been selected as the 2019 Vanderbilt Prize Student Scholar. Megan Rasmussen She will receive a $1,000 cash prize and will be mentored by the winner of the...
Promoting β cell development
Jul. 19, 2019—A collaboration between the labs of Roland Stein (MPB) and Christopher Wright (CDB) outlinesan interaction between the SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complex and the Pdx1 transcription factor that promotes healthy development of insulin-producing β cells in the pancreas.
Bracey & Taneja awarded research fellowships
Jul. 19, 2019—This month, the following graduate students were awarded fellowships: Justin Marinko (lab of Chuck Sanders, Biochemistry) and Kai Bracey (lab of Irina Kaverina, CDB) from the NIH, Nilay Taneja (lab of Dylan Burnette, CDB) from the American Heart Association, and Joe Luchsinger (lab of Danny Winder, Molecular Physiology & Biophysics [MPB]) from the NIAAA. Congratulations to you all!
Vanderbilt, Duke project earns Chan Zuckerberg Initiative funding
Jul. 19, 2019—Ken Lau (Cell and Developmental Biology [CDB]) and collaborator Xiling Shen from Duke University have received funding from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative for a project that aims to create a cell atlas of the human gut-brain axis. The work will be part of the Seed Networks for the Human Cell Atlas, which brings experimental scientists,...
Tansey Paper Highlighted
Jun. 13, 2019—Write-ups of a recent Nature Communications article (“Inhibition of MYC by the SMARCB1 tumor suppressor“) by Bill Tansey are featured on the SOM Basic Sciences and Vanderbilt Institute of Chemical Biology (VICB) websites.
Faculty Promotions – Page McCaw & Lau!
Apr. 18, 2019—Andrea Page McCaw has been promoted to Full Professor. She has also assumed duties as our new Director of Graduate Studies. And Ken Lau has been promoted to Associate Professor with tenure. Please join us in congratulating Dr. McCaw and Dr. Lau for achieving these noteworthy milestones. See celebration photos!
Vivien Casagrande Lecture in Systems Neuroscience
Apr. 3, 2019—Vivien Casagrande Lecture in Systems Neuroscience: “The path from eye to brain for binocular vision: lessons from the albino visual system” Wednesday, April 17, 2019 4:10 p.m. — 1220 Medical Research Building III Carol A. Mason, Ph.D. Professor of Pathology & Cell Biology, Neuroscience and Ophthalmic Science Columbia University Tea Time beginning at 3:30pm in...
Vanderbilt mourns cancer researcher Stephen Hann
Mar. 8, 2019—Mar. 7, 2019, 11:57 AM by Leigh MacMillan Stephen Hann, PhD, professor of Cell and Developmental Biology, died Feb. 27. He was 67. Dr. Hann was born Dec. 11, 1951, in Beech Grove, Indiana. He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1974 and his PhD from the University of California,...
Christi Salsbury-Ruf (Zinkel Lab) featured in Reporter article
Feb. 12, 2019—Jan. 31, 2019, 9:40 AM From left, Sandra Zinkel, MD, PhD, Christi Salisbury-Ruf, MS, Patrice Wagner, PhD, Jing Zou, MD, PhD, and Yuliya Hassan have linked a specific form of programmed cell death to myelodysplastic syndrome, a type of bone marrow failure. by Leigh MacMillan The production of blood cells in the bone marrow —...
Alissa Guarnaccia named 2018 Vanderbilt Prize Student Scholar
Jan. 28, 2019—Vanderbilt Prize winner Amon to speak at Jan. 31 lecture Jan. 24, 2019, 10:30 AM by Bill Snyder Angelika Amon, PhD, recipient of the 2018 Vanderbilt Prize in Biomedical Science, will deliver her Vanderbilt Prize lecture at 4 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 31, in 208 Light Hall. Angelika Amon, PhD Amon, whose groundbreaking investigations of chromosome...
Building a pancreas
Jan. 24, 2019—Jan. 17, 2019, 10:15 AM by Leigh MacMillan (iStock) In the developing pancreas, seemingly equivalent progenitor cells differentiate into the four types of hormone-positive islet cells: alpha, beta, gamma and delta. Insulin-secreting beta cells are destroyed in type 1 diabetes, and understanding how beta cells develop could lead to new cellular or regenerative therapeutic strategies...
Breast cancer-killing RIG
Jan. 15, 2019—Dec. 13, 2018, 10:00 AM by Leigh MacMillan Immune checkpoint inhibitors — cancer therapies that remove the “brakes” on the adaptive anti-tumor immune response — have had remarkable success in melanoma and lung cancer. Response rates to these immunotherapies in breast cancer have been disappointing, perhaps because breast cancers are less “immunogenic” and contain fewer...
The exocyst dynamo
Dec. 18, 2018—Dec. 13, 2018, 9:45 AM by Bill Snyder (iStock) The exocyst is a protein complex essential for life, that is comprised of eight subunits and is a crucial component in vesicle trafficking. The mechanisms by which exocysts assemble and deliver vesicles containing important biological materials to the cell surface has been unclear, especially in mammalian...
Team seeks to create gene expression map of worm’s nervous system
Dec. 12, 2018—by Leigh MacMillan How do you build a brain? What “rules” govern where neurons end up, how they connect to each other, and which functions they perform? “Most of the information that you need to create this extraordinarily complex network of connected cells — the brain — is genetically encoded. The overall architecture is a...
Analyzing single-cell landscapes
Dec. 12, 2018—Nov. 29, 2018, 11:00 AM by Leigh MacMillan Single-cell RNA sequencing is a powerful tool for studying cellular diversity, for example in cancer where varied tumor cell types determine diagnosis, prognosis and response to therapy. Single-cell technologies generate hundreds to thousands of data points per sample, generating a need for new methods to define cell...