Author
Antibody mixture may help block Ebola virus infection
Feb. 6, 2020—Feb. 6, 2020, 12:47 PM by Bill Snyder A research team led by scientists at Vanderbilt University Medical Center has developed an antibody mixture that in animals is highly effective in blocking infection by the Ebola virus. Reporting in the journal Immunity, these findings “could aid in the design of therapeutic cocktails against other viral...
Breaking up MYC-WDR5 to counter cancers
Feb. 4, 2020—By Suneethi Sivakumaran Cancers are complex and diverse in nature, assailing the human body through different mechanisms. Cancer cells outsmart normal cells through myriad mechanisms, including sustained proliferation, insensitivity to growth suppressors, and resistance to cell death. MYC is a transcription factor (it regulates the expression of other genes) that plays important roles in human...
Receptor modulators chart new courses out of depression
Feb. 4, 2020—By Amanda N. Johnson Existing drug treatments relieve mental illness for some people, but fall short of providing a full recovery for many others. One goal of neuroscience research is to find new ways to modulate brain activity so that more patients experience freedom from poor mental health. The laboratories of Craig Lindsley (Pharmacology), Danny...
Lopez lands NSF Career Award
Jan. 31, 2020—Carlos Lopez (Biochemistry) has received a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award, the most prestigious NSF award that supports early-career faculty. Lopez’s research attempts to parse out the role of noise and randomness in determining cell fate.
A new contributor to atherosclerosis
Jan. 30, 2020—Jan. 27, 2020, 9:00 AM by Leigh MacMillan Free radicals produced during oxidative stress react with membrane fatty acids to yield highly reactive lipid aldehydes, which can modify proteins and cause cellular or tissue damage. The aldehyde HNE has been shown to modify high-density lipoprotein (HDL, the so-called good cholesterol) and contribute to atherosclerosis. Another...
Protein research seeks to induce tumor regression
Jan. 30, 2020—Jan. 29, 2020, 2:23 PM by Bill Snyder MYC is a family of three related proteins that are overexpressed in cancer and which contribute to an estimated 100,000 cancer deaths annually in the United States. Efforts to block MYC directly have failed. Fortunately, these proteins have an Achilles’ heel — a chromosome-binding cofactor called WDR5....
Targeting NA to protect against lethal avian flu infection
Jan. 22, 2020—By Sohini Roy Asian lineage avian influenza virus (H7N9) is a subtype of influenza virus that can infect humans following exposure to live, infected poultry. There have been several outbreaks since the first reported case in China in 2013, and the mortality rate is as high as 39 percent. Although person-to-person transmission of the virus...
Zinc uptake by a deadly pathogen
Jan. 17, 2020—Jan. 13, 2020, 8:30 AM by Leigh MacMillan The journal cover featured an artistic representation of Acinetobacter baumannii infecting the lung, which was created by undergraduate student Ayomide Sanusia. Acinetobacter baumannii — a cause of pneumonia, sepsis, wound and burn infections — is becoming more prevalent and resistant to antibiotics. Like other pathogens, A. baumannii...
Study sheds light on gastric cancer development
Jan. 17, 2020—Jan. 16, 2020, 11:03 AM by Bill Snyder Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have created the world’s first laboratory model of precancerous changes in the lining of the stomach, a scientific tour de force that is helping to unlock the mysteries of gastric cancer development. Their achievement, described recently in the journal Nature Communications,...
Jeff Conn Receives ASPET Julius Axelrod Award in Pharmacology
Jan. 13, 2020—ASPET is pleased to award Dr. P. Jeffrey Conn from the Vanderbilt Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery the 2020 Julius Axelrod Award in Pharmacology. The Axelrod Award was established in 1991 to honor the memory of the eminent American pharmacologist who shaped the fields of neuroscience, drug metabolism, and biochemistry and who served as a...