Summer 2018
Biology and the Beat
Sep. 13, 2018—Kate Margulis has been passionate about music all her life. But it wasn’t until she came to Vanderbilt to earn a master’s degree in speech and language pathology that she realized she could marry that passion to her undergraduate research in developmental psychology and language and, as a result, help children learn language skills. Margulis...
The Program for Music, Mind and Society
Sep. 13, 2018—The Music Cognition Lab is a part of the Program for Music, Mind, and Society at Vanderbilt, a collaborative network of researchers, scientists, artists and students, working together to accelerate the understanding and impact of music on individuals and society. This network harnesses the teaching and research resources of the Vanderbilt School of Medicine, Peabody...
Happy, Healthy, Whole
Sep. 13, 2018— At a 20-week ultrasound Lindsey and Jeremy Walley were excited to learn the gender of their first-born child. Their elation that it was a girl was met by a sudden quiet and serious look from the ultrasound technician, who then whisked them to another room for a meeting with their obstetrician-gynecologist. The couple knew...
What is omphalocele?
Sep. 13, 2018—Omphalocele, also known as exomphalos, is a birth defect of the abdominal (belly) wall. The infant’s intestines, liver or other organs stick outside of the belly through the belly button. The organs are covered in a thin, nearly transparent sac that rarely is open or broken. As the baby develops during weeks six through 10...
Our Amazing Skin
Sep. 13, 2018—Skin is the human body’s largest organ accounting for 8 pounds and 2 square meters on an adult. It is our fiercest protector, an impervious shield that plays a major role in keeping us alive. Since a substantial portion of our immune cells live in our skin, it teaches our body to fight off infections....
New Treatments at a Glance
Sep. 13, 2018—New treatments for metastatic melanoma fall into two categories: immunotherapies that spur patients’ immune systems to attack the cancer and targeted therapies that block the molecules that allow the cancer to grow and spread. Immunotherapies — Up to 60 percent of patients will respond to immune therapy. FDA-approved immunotherapies include pembrolizumab, nivolumab, talimogene laherparepvec, ipilimumab...
Cell signals that trigger wound healing are surprisingly complex
Sep. 13, 2018—In a sharp and pointy world, wound healing is a critical and marvelous process. Despite a tremendous amount of scientific study, many outstanding mysteries still surround the way in which cells in living tissue respond to and repair physical damage. One prominent mystery is exactly how wound-healing is triggered. A better understanding of this process...
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...
Jake Ramsey
Sep. 13, 2018—Second-year medical student from Santa Claus, Indiana Graduated from Purdue University in 2016 with a Bachelor of Science in pharmaceutical sciences The recipient of the Helen W. and Louis Rosenfeld Endowed Scholarship Fund and the Ethel and Louis Shivitz Scholarship “I was a little anxious moving to the South for medical school because I worried...
Concussions
Sep. 13, 2018—
Tradition and progress mark the start of a new academic year
Sep. 13, 2018—Summer marked the beginning of another exciting academic year when we welcomed a host of students and advanced postdoctoral trainees to the Medical Center. It is a time of renewal, optimism and excitement for the future. In July we introduced 96 medical students during the annual Convocation and White Coat Ceremony. Our residency and fellowship...
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...
Alumni News
Sep. 13, 2018—1960s Phillip Gorden, MD’61, BA’57, received the John Phillips Memorial Award as well as Mastership from the American College of Physicians, a national organization of internists. The award was presented at ACP’s Convocation Ceremony in April. Gorden is a leading investigator in diabetes and lipid metabolism and former director of the National Institute of Diabetes...
Losses
Sep. 13, 2018—John Ball, MD, FE’71, died Feb. 4. He was 79. Dr. Ball is survived by his wife, Anne; children Cassandra, Cynthia and Jennifer; and six grandchildren. Subhankar Bandyopadhyay, MD, FE’92, HS’93, died Feb. 9. He was 58. Dr. Bandyopadhyay is survived by his wife, Sati Nath; children Orunima and Anondo. Jim Borland Jr., MD, HS’60,...
Giving in Action: Honoring their son’s legacy
Sep. 13, 2018—Two new scholarships at Vanderbilt University — one at Vanderbilt Law School, the other at the School of Medicine — have been named in honor of alumnus Rick Ferrini, JD’11. Divya and Vino Ferrini of Dallas have pledged $1 million to establish both the Rick V. N. Ferrini Law Scholarship and Rick V. N. Ferrini...
Giving in Action: Paying it forward
Sep. 13, 2018—You could say Tom Brown’s future was set at an early age. His English teacher took one look at his handwriting and told him, “You better be a doctor.” While more drove him to medicine than his hard-to-decipher handwriting, Brown, MD’69, BA’65, has worked as a cardiologist for Iowa Heart Center for more than 40...
Alumni Profile: Sharat Kusuma, MD
Sep. 13, 2018— Medical Visionary Sharat Kusuma, MD, MBA’02, BA’97, grew up in Albany, Georgia, and comes from a family of doctors. His father is a gastroenterologist, and his brother is a Vanderbilt-trained plastic surgeon. Kusuma chose orthopaedic joint replacement surgery as his clinical specialty. “The way you can immediately affect the gait and mobility of patients...
Alumni Profile: Jessi Solomon Sanders, MD
Sep. 13, 2018— A Champion for Children Jessi Solomon Sanders, MD, has an affinity for children with chronic illnesses and special needs that began in childhood and helped shape her future as a resident physician in neurodevelopmental disabilities at Boston Children’s Hospital. She grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and accompanied her mother, an advocate for children with...
Letter from Ann Price, MD
Sep. 13, 2018—Dear Vanderbilt University Medical Alumni, Vanderbilt Medical Alumni Reunion 2018 Our next biennial VUSM Reunion, Oct. 11-13, is fast approaching. Reunion festivities will begin on Thursday morning, Oct. 11, with a golf outing at Richland Country Club, followed by an evening welcome reception and awards program at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum....
Faces and Places
Sep. 13, 2018—
Easier Access Key to Early Detection
Sep. 11, 2018—The American Cancer Society estimates about 91,270 new melanomas will be diagnosed in 2018. About 9,320 people are expected to die of melanoma, the rates of which have been rising for the last 30 years. Vanderbilt’s Department of Dermatology has a few important initiatives in play to diagnose it and other types of skin cancer...
Science of the Skin
Sep. 11, 2018—How the skin protects Epidermis, the outermost layer of the skin, provides the critical protective barrier needed for terrestrial life. The process of epidermal barrier formation includes conversion of the essential fatty acid linoleate into skin-relevant oxidized lipids. Two lipoxygenase enzymes, 12R– LOX and eLOX3, initiate this conversion pathway. An inactivating mutation in either enzyme...
Global Good
Sep. 11, 2018—Street vendors sell caskets along the road that leads to the hospital in Mwanza, Tanzania. It’s a stark reality, this expectation of death distilled into an image, then seared into memory. Reid Thompson, MD, can’t forget what he saw, and he doesn’t want to forget. “When you walk out of the hospital and come down...
My Tenuous Relationship With an Octopus
Sep. 10, 2018—Written by Jonathan Dallas Ever since third grade, the octopus has been my least favorite animal. Not that any octopus ever did anything to me; on the contrary, I’ve only seen one in an aquarium, and I’m sure it took no special notice of me, nor I of it. In fact, given their keen...