Around the Medical Center
New technology helps pediatric patients who require frequent X-rays
Sep. 9, 2019—Chloie Jacobs, 9, prepares for a follow-up scan of her congenital scoliosis and climbs into a new X-ray imaging device at the pediatric orthopaedic clinic at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. But this isn’t just any X-ray machine. For Chloie, the cutting-edge technology, known as EOS, feels more like a teletransporter, because of its...
Master of Genetic Counseling program debuts inaugural class
Sep. 9, 2019—In August, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine welcomed its first class of students seeking a Master of Genetic Counseling (MGC) degree, one of the fastest growing health professions in the country. Vanderbilt’s program, developed and taught by genetic counselors in collaboration with the interprofessional faculty at Vanderbilt University and Vanderbilt University Medical Center, is built...
Treatment approved for acute graft-versus-host disease
Sep. 9, 2019—The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved ruxolitinib, the first drug for patients with acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) who have an inadequate response to steroid treatment. Madan Jagasia, MBBS, MS, MMHC, chief medical officer and co-leader of the Translational Research and Interventional Oncology Program at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC), was a lead investigator...
Research Round-up
Sep. 9, 2019—Blueprint for rebuilding the heart Cell fate reprogramming — converting one cell type into another — is a potential strategy for generating cardiac cells to treat heart diseases. Although previous studies have shown that the expression of cardiogenic transcription factors directly reprograms fibroblasts (connective tissue cells) into induced cardiomyocyte-like cells (iCMs), there remains the obstacle...
Q + A: John “Nicky” Grimes
Feb. 28, 2019—John “Nicky” Grimes, PhD, is a second-year student in Vanderbilt University School of Medicine’s Medical Innovators Development Program (MIDP), a four-year PhD-to-MD training program tailored to engineers and applied scientists. The first in his family to obtain a traditional bachelor’s degree, Grimes, who holds the Glenn and Virginia Hammonds Scholarship, explains what led him to...
Young heart patient, care team bond through music
Feb. 28, 2019—Sydney Andrade-Rubio usually brings her ukulele during hospital stays and clinic visits at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. The 15-year-old likes to pass the time strumming the four-string instrument, humming tunes and sometimes playing along with her cardiologist, Frank Fish, MD. Music has been the bridge Fish used to help him connect with...
Research roundup
Feb. 28, 2019—Study suggests way to prevent rare lung disease Research by Vanderbilt scientists suggests that it may be possible to prevent or even reverse pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), a rare, progressive disease characterized by narrowing of and high blood pressure in the small arteries of the lungs. A key player in PAH is the proangiogenic cell...
Brady to succeed Miller as Senior Associate Dean and EVP for Educational Affairs
Feb. 28, 2019— After more than three decades of service to Vanderbilt, Bonnie Miller, MD, MMHC, Senior Associate Dean for Health Sciences Education at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and Executive Vice-President for Educational Affairs at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, has decided to retire from her leadership positions July 1. Miller will be succeeded in these roles...
Antipsychotics ineffective for treating ICU delirium: study
Feb. 28, 2019—Critically ill patients are not benefiting from antipsychotic medications that have been used to treat delirium in intensive care units (ICUs) for more than four decades, according to a study released in October 2018 in the New England Journal of Medicine. Each year, more than 7 million hospitalized patients in the United States experience delirium,...
Family’s transplant journey a study in overcoming barriers
Sep. 13, 2018— There are no words for liver transplantation in Somalian refugee Aniso Haji’s native language. As a translator meticulously selected words to describe the medical procedure that would ultimately save the life of Haji’s youngest daughter, Fatuma Abdikadir, members of the pediatric liver transplant team at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital waited anxiously. Haji spoke...
Research Round-up
Sep. 13, 2018—Restoring silenced voices A swarm of cicadas that left thousands of insect carcasses across the Vanderbilt University campus in 2011 is leading to transinstitutional research at the Vanderbilt Institute for Surgery and Engineering (VISE) and Vanderbilt University Medical Center to develop a surgical planning tool to help restore speech for people with vocal fold paralysis....
Saline Use On The Decline At Vanderbilt Following Landmark Studies
Sep. 13, 2018—Saline, used in medicine for more than a century, contains high concentrations of sodium chloride, which is similar to table salt; Vanderbilt researchers found that patients do better if, instead of saline, they are given balanced fluids that closely resemble the liquid part of blood. “Our results suggest that using primarily balanced fluids should prevent...
Renovated Eskind Biomedical Library re-opened
Sep. 13, 2018—The Annette and Irwin Eskind Family Biomedical Library and Learning Center opened July 18 after a yearlong, $12.9 million renovation with infrastructure improvements and updates to support the continuing evolution of medical education. The construction project was designed to incorporate the University’s research, learning and teaching goals and includes features that complement the School of...
Q+A: Jed Kuhn, MD
Sep. 13, 2018—Jed Kuhn, MD, Kenneth D. Schermerhorn Professor of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation, and Paul Rummo, MD, also a Vanderbilt orthopaedics expert, are the head team physicians for the NHL’s Nashville Predators. With help from neuropsychologist Gary Solomon, PhD, and specialists in emergency medicine, plastic surgery, ophthalmology and dentistry, they keep Nashville’s beloved hockey stars healthy and...
Study provides robust evidence of sex differences with Alzheimer’s gene
Sep. 13, 2018— The APOE gene, the strongest genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease, may play a more prominent role in disease development among women than men, according to new research from the Vanderbilt Memory and Alzheimer’s Center. The research confirmed recent studies that carrying the APOE ε4 allele has a greater association with Alzheimer’s disease among...
Dolly’s Children’s Hospital visit highlights strong ties
Feb. 28, 2018—To celebrate the release of her first children’s album, “I Believe in You,” legendary country music singer-songwriter Dolly Parton visited Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt in October 2017 and performed songs from the album for patients, their families and hospital staff. Parton specifically wrote the song “Chemo Hero” to honor one of her...
Q+A: Lawrence Marnett, PhD
Feb. 28, 2018—Lawrence Marnett, PhD, University Professor of Biochemistry, Chemistry and Pharmacology and Mary Geddes Stahlman Professor of Cancer Research, is Vanderbilt’s first Dean of Basic Sciences, which comprises four biomedical science departments, eight centers and 18 research cores. Marnett was named dean in April 2016. Can you please describe a formative moment from your career in...
Study explores nicotine patch to treat mild cognitive impairment
Feb. 28, 2018—Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) is one of 29 sites participating in a national study to determine whether a daily transdermal nicotine patch will have a positive effect on attention and early memory impairment in older adults diagnosed with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). Paul Newhouse, MD, director of the Center for Cognitive Medicine at VUMC,...
Symposium honors Moses’ storied cancer research career
Feb. 28, 2018—Members of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) community and others whose lives and careers have been influenced by legendary cancer investigator, educator and administrator Harold (Hal) Moses, MD’62, have endowed the Linda and Harold L. Moses, MD, Career Development Fund. The fund will support the next generation of physicians, scientists and scholars, and was...
Research Round-up
Feb. 28, 2018—Radiation and pulmonary fibrosis Radiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis — tissue scarring that can permanently impair lung function — limits the delivery of therapeutic radiation doses to non-small cell lung cancer. Michael Freeman, PhD, and colleagues are exploring the cell types and factors that contribute to the radiation-induced fibrotic response. The investigators previously showed that loss of...
Patient’s freak pancreas injury spurs rapid response
Feb. 28, 2018—Macie Glover sprinted across the gym floor at school, tripped and crashed into a wall. In a bizarre sequence of events, she hit her head and arm and scraped her knees as the force of the crash propelled her whole body arching backward into a crescent shape. “I hit the ground. I couldn’t breathe. Whenever...
Study uses child’s own immune system against type 1 diabetes
Sep. 21, 2017—Eighteen-year-old Grace Long had just been accepted at the renowned United States Naval Academy, with plans to become a nuclear engineering officer. Then, she learned she had type 1 diabetes, an immediate disqualifier for military service. Rather than allow the news to derail her, Long immediately began to investigate how she could spin her disappointment...
Q+A: Arna Banerjee, MBBS
Sep. 21, 2017—Physician-educator Arna Banerjee, MBBS, associate professor of Anesthesiology, Surgery, and Medical Education and Administration, is a national leader in medical simulation training. She is director of Vanderbilt’s Center for Experiential Learning and Assessment (CELA) and assistant dean for Simulation in Medical Education for Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. She also provides perioperative care for adult...
Vanderbilt-led Study Disputes Link Between Uterine Fibroids and Miscarriage Risk
Sep. 21, 2017—A 10-year study, led by Vanderbilt University Medical Center professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology Katherine Hartmann, M.D., Ph.D., disrupts conventional wisdom that uterine fibroids cause miscarriages. The results of study appeared June 7 in the American Journal of Epidemiology. “Women with fibroids had identical risk of miscarriage as women without fibroids when taking into account...
VUSM joins initiative to transform medical education
Sep. 21, 2017—Vanderbilt University School of Medicine (VUSM) has been chosen to be a part of the newly formed Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Institute for the Transformation of Medical Education (Kern Institute), a national initiative to transform medical education across the continuum from pre-medical school to physician practice. The National Transformation Network, a collaborative of...
Research Round-up
Sep. 21, 2017—Studies find tonsillectomies offer only modest benefits Removing tonsils modestly reduced throat infections in the short term in children with moderate obstructive sleep-disordered breathing or recurrent throat infections, according to a systematic review conducted by the Vanderbilt Evidence-based Practice Center for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Four papers derived from the larger...
How six cups of ground coffee can improve nose, throat surgery
Sep. 21, 2017—Imagine plopping six cups of coffee grounds on the heads of patients just before they are wheeled into the operating room to have nose or throat surgery. In essence, that is what a team of Vanderbilt University engineers are proposing in an effort to improve the reliability of the sophisticated “GPS” system that surgeons use...
Eskind family makes $6 million gift to keep library on leading edge of health education innovation
Mar. 1, 2017—A visionary $6 million gift to Vanderbilt University from the Eskind family will ensure that the Annette and Irwin Eskind Biomedical Library, the institution’s hub of medical information services and resources since 1994, will continue to support the next generation of scientists, physicians, students and patients. The $12.9 million renovation will provide infrastructure for the...
Q+A: Wonder Drake, M.D.
Mar. 1, 2017—Physician-scientist Wonder Drake, M.D., ‘94, associate professor of Medicine and Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, has focused her research on understanding the pathogenesis of sarcoidosis, a chronic inflammatory disease that strikes multiple organ systems in the body. She is the newly named director of the Sarcoidosis Center of Excellence. What about sarcoidosis attracted your attention as...
Complex plastic surgery restores facial expression
Mar. 1, 2017—When Kelly Davis woke up one morning in April 2016, she told her husband Anthony that she dreamed her face was moving; then she looked in the mirror and saw that it really was. “I just cried,” said the 46-year-old Morristown, Tennessee, resident. “When I bit down on my teeth, I could see movement on...
Research Round-up
Mar. 1, 2017—Reducing antidepressants’ side effects Medicines used to treat depression, called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), can increase bleeding risk and bleeding time and disrupt platelet aggregation in the gastrointestinal tract. SSRIs prevent cells from taking up the neurotransmitter serotonin that has been released from cells by blocking the serotonin transporter (SERT). It is unclear how...
Investigational new drug for Alzheimer’s scheduled for first study in humans
Mar. 1, 2017—Vanderbilt University scientists have received notification from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that testing in humans may proceed for an investigational new drug for Alzheimer’s disease after more than 10 years of research by scientists at Vanderbilt University and Vanderbilt University Medical Center. It is relatively uncharted territory for an academic drug discovery...
Transition Complete: Vanderbilt University Medical Center is Independent Entity
Aug. 18, 2016—After a nearly two-year, carefully orchestrated process, Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) is now operating as a fully independent, nonprofit entity, following the completion of the legal transaction on April 30 that separated it legally and financially from Vanderbilt University. The transition positions VUMC for future growth and investment, while preserving its tightly woven connections...
Q+A: Katherine Sumarriva
Aug. 18, 2016— What does it mean to be the Doris and Fred Love scholarship recipient? It’s huge. It means the school really believed in me and is willing to put their money and invest in me and my education because they think I will make a good doctor, and I will make a difference here at Vanderbilt, so...
Marnett named Dean of Basic Sciences for School of Medicine
Aug. 18, 2016—Lawrence J. Marnett, Ph.D., has been named Dean of Basic Sciences for the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. He is University Professor of Biochemistry, Chemistry and Pharmacology and Mary Geddes Stahlman Professor of Cancer Research. “Our research and teaching in the basic sciences are engines of discovery and a critical part of our ability to have...
VUSM students’ education proposal lands AMA prize
Aug. 18, 2016—Two Vanderbilt University School of Medicine (VUSM) students were awarded the prize for the best proposal on how to transform medical education during the American Medical Association (AMA) Spring 2016 Consortium Meeting in March. The AMA Medical Education Innovation Challenge is part of the Accelerating Change in Medical Education initiative— a collaborative effort to create...
Research Round-up
Aug. 18, 2016—Immune defenses in asthma Patients with asthma are at increased risk for invasive bacterial infections and bacterial pneumonia, but the mechanisms that impair their immune system defenses against pathogens are unknown. Melissa Bloodworth, R. Stokes Peebles, Jr., M.D., and colleagues explored whether STAT6—a transcription factor that is expressed at high levels in the T cells of people...
Clinicians, researchers identify gene mutation as cause of boy’s rare disorder
Aug. 18, 2016—Test after test failed to reveal why Denny Majano wasn’t gaining weight or why he suffered from severe, chronic diarrhea. At 5 weeks old Denny had lost a pound since birth. He was admitted to Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt in 2011, where he would spend almost two and a half years in the...
Siri ‘butt dial’ to 911 brings rescuers to trapped victim
Feb. 22, 2016—A Vanderbilt patient who survived a car falling on him has brought a whole new meaning to the term “butt dialing” and believes that prayer, along with a little help from Siri, saved his life. Sam Ray, 18, was never a fan of Siri, the hands-free virtual assistant on Apple iPhones, until he found himself...
Q+A: Jonathan Metzl, M.D., Ph.D.
Feb. 22, 2016—Jonathan Metzl, M.D., Ph.D., was recently named director of research of the Safe Tennessee Project, a non-partisan, volunteer-based organization devoted to reducing gun violence in the state. Metzl is the Frederick B. Rentschler II Professor of Sociology and director of the Center for Medicine, Health and Society. He also holds faculty appointments in psychiatry, history...
Study sheds light on side effects of COX-2 drugs
Feb. 22, 2016—It’s been about a decade since the promise of COX-2 inhibitors—drugs that relieve arthritis pain and inflammation without the gastrointestinal side effects of other painkillers—was tempered by the realization that they could cause heart problems in some patients. Now a team of Vanderbilt University Medical Center scientists led by Ming-Zhi Zhang M.D., M.Sc., and Raymond...
Major grant to transform region’s clinical practices
Feb. 22, 2016—Vanderbilt University has received a contract from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for up to $28 million over four years to help more than 4,000 clinicians in the Southeast transform their clinical practices in ways that improve quality of patient care and hold down costs. The contract is part of the Transforming...
Quicknotes
Feb. 22, 2016—Compound developed at VUMC may delay Huntington’s disease A compound developed by researchers at Vanderbilt University can improve early symptoms and delay progression of Huntington’s disease in a mouse model of the neurodegenerative disorder. The findings, reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, offer one of the first glimmers of hope for a...
Earthquake victim’s journey leads to Children’s Hospital
Feb. 22, 2016—Eleuseo Morales-Garcia awoke suddenly to his San Marcos, Guatemala, home shaking violently on July 7, 2014. It was 5 a.m. and the walls were crumbling around him, his wife, Audelia Marta-Ortiz, and their five children. The earthquake that hit their city that morning—and changed the family’s life forever—reportedly was a 6.9 magnitude. Because Guatemala lies...
Quicknotes
Aug. 21, 2015—Antibiotics with anticancer potential The type II topoisomerases—enzymes that manage tangles and supercoils in DNA—exist in all organisms and are important drug targets. Widely prescribed anticancer agents including etoposide and doxorubicin target human type II topoisomerases, and quinolone antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin target bacterial topoisomerases. Clinically relevant quinolones have no activity against human type II topoisomerases, but a...
Paralyzed by accident, grad student engineers his future with exoskeleton
Aug. 21, 2015—Andrew Ekelem sits in a wheelchair at the bottom of the fifth-floor stairwell at Olin Hall, laptop balanced on his thighs, quick keystrokes making tiny adjustments for the exoskeleton that promises to change his life. If Ekelem is impatient with this process, it’s impossible to tell. But he readily admits it’s his impatience that brought...
Study shows poor heart function could be major Alzheimer’s disease risk
Aug. 21, 2015—AVanderbilt study, published in Circulation, associates heart function with the development of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Participants with decreased heart function, measured by cardiac index, were two to three times more likely to develop significant memory loss over the follow-up period. “Heart function could prove to be a major risk factor for dementia and Alzheimer’s...
Laser technology offers new option to treat epilepsy
Aug. 21, 2015—Vanderbilt recently debuted a new minimally invasive surgical treatment for epilepsy, and for 25-year-old Cory Moquist, the procedure, which he underwent in February, is “opening a lot of doors.” The cutting-edge technique employs MRI-guided laser ablation to destroy the brain tissue causing seizures in place of surgical resection. “I’m excited that this could fix my epilepsy...
Q+A: Michelle Izmaylov
Aug. 21, 2015—Michelle Izmaylov is a third-year medical student from Atlanta, and a successful writer of fantasy-fiction books for young adults. Izmaylov, 24, has already published three novels and one novella and received several literary awards including the 2010 Blumenthal Award for Best Undergraduate Essay, among others. She holds the Hollis E. and Frances Settle Johnson Scholarship....
From Jocks to Docs
Aug. 21, 2015—On July 15, four Vanderbilt student-athletes arrived for orientation for the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine— former football players Patton Robinette, Alex Hysong and Steve Monk and men’s cross country standout John Ewing. Just 91 applicants were accepted for the VUSM Class of 2019, which was ranked as the 15th best by U.S. News and...