Reporter Dec 20 2013

Editor’s note — the following is a roundup of the news that made headlines at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in 2013. Strategic repositioning This year, Vanderbilt University Medical Center proactively embarked on a forward-thinking and necessary mission to reposition the institution to thrive in a fundamentally altered and challenging health… Read More

VUMC was lauded on numerous national ranking lists during the year. Read More

Leadership additions bolstered VUMC’s missions this year. Read More

Santa talks with Emma Hudson during his recent visit to see patients and families at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. Read More

A chemical bond discovered by Vanderbilt University scientists that is essential for animal life and which hastened the “dawn of the animal kingdom” could lead to new therapies for cancer and other diseases. Read More

Vanderbilt University researchers have received a two-year, $1.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study a mouse model of the metabolic and hormonal changes caused by bariatric surgery. Read More

School of Nursing Dean Linda Norman, DSN, R.N., awarded a VUSN pin to 16 students at Sunday’s pinning ceremony at Benton Chapel. Read More

William Stead, M.D., associate vice chancellor for Health Affairs and Chief Strategy Officer at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, has been re-elected to a second full term on the Council of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies. Read More

Jennifer Puck, M.D., an expert on human primary immunodeficiencies at the University of California, San Francisco, spoke on newborn screening to detect immune defects at her recent Flexner Discovery Lecture. Read More

Two features of invasive cancer cells — invadopodia and exosomes — are linked together, Vanderbilt University investigators have discovered. Read More

Biomedical and chemical engineers at Vanderbilt University, working with a pathologist, have constructed a sponge-like, biodegradable tissue “scaffold” that releases an enzyme-blocking molecule to indirectly activate endogenous pathways and enhance tissue regeneration and wound healing. Read More

Cancer researchers, led by investigators at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, have identified two novel gene fusions in melanoma that may be responsive to existing cancer therapies. Melanoma is the most deadly form of skin cancer. Read More

“The downsizing effort is over.” With those words, Jeff Balser, M.D., Ph.D., vice chancellor for Health Affairs and dean of the School of Medicine, announced Wednesday that workforce reduction efforts announced in September at Vanderbilt University Medical Center are completed. Read More