Vanderbilt University study to be most comprehensive look at link between stress and health disparities

Vanderbilt University is launching a landmark study in Nashville to look at the role stress plays in the health disparities observed across socioeconomic status and race.

BOT member Frederick B. Rentschler dies

Rentschler ran companies including Northwest Airlines and Hunt-Wesson during his career. He died July 6 in Scottsdale, Ariz. He was 70.

Toner and battery recycling offered at main campus and Vanderbilt Valet locations

Guy Brown will donate equal portions of the proceeds from recycling toner cartridges and cell phones to Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital and the Susan Gray School.

Water’s unexpected role in blood pressure control

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have shown that ordinary water increases the activity of the sympathetic – fight or flight – nervous system.

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  This Week

July 11-15: Yoga sessions – Basics, Gentle, Restorative and Therapeutic

July 14: Be the Match, Donate Life, Give Blood – participate in Vanderbilt Gives Back

July 16-23: Football Camps – Music City Classic, Rising Star and Junior Mini-Camp

July 17 & 18: Playing By Air: The Show (Off Campus)

 Mark Your Calendars

July 19-23: Next Step Summer Institute

July 20: Faculty and staff cookout with Coach Bobby Johnson

July 24: Bluebird on the Mountain at Dyer Observatory

more events »

Sign Up for a Clinical Trial

Volunteers Needed for Type 2 Diabetes Study at Vanderbilt Medical Center

Announcements

Volunteers needed to help international fellows in Nashville

New staff members to park at Lot 127

Babies and You: Labor and Delivery on July 15

Personalized medicine TV presentation featuring Vanderbilt airs July 17

more announcements »

Featured Media

VUCast: Inside the legal fight for BP billions; a story of survival; and meet Professor Fizzy

more media »

Tune in to VUCast, for audio and video of events happening around campus. You can also find VU podcasts on iTunes and VU videos on YouTube.

From VUMC Reporter:

Possible new breast cancer treatment target identified

Two-thirds of breast cancers depend on the female hormone estrogen for growth. Treatment options for those patients include antiestrogen drugs that block tumor cells from growing.

However, many women eventually develop resistance to those antiestrogen therapies and their tumors start growing again. In about 10 percent of those patients, this resistance is caused by high tumor levels of an oncogene called HER2.

The drugs trastuzumab (Herceptin) and lapatinib have been developed for use in those patients. But there is no effective treatment for the rest of the patients who develop resistance to endocrine therapies.

Read more about a promising target for new therapies.