Month: August 2013

Alkaline phosphatase enzymes appear to play roles in promoting pregnancy and in protecting the uterus from bacterial infection. Read More

By Kathy Whitney From Africa to Asia to South America, Vanderbilt is represented by hundreds of School of Medicine faculty members, medical students and alumni who leave the comforts of home to endure danger, political strife, homesickness, language barriers, and substandard living and working conditions for the greater good. Some… Read More

By Jennifer Johnston Although Crystal Finley, BS’13, entered Vanderbilt with a clear plan for success, her life mission would soon change when she became a volunteer mentor with Next Steps at Vanderbilt, a postsecondary program for students with intellectual or other disabilities. As a freshman at Vanderbilt four years ago,… Read More

By Brier Dudley Illustration above by Otto Steininger Credit: Tristan Elwell Forty years after Atari’s digital table tennis game Pong bleeped onto the scene and made video games mainstream entertainment, we’ve become a nation of video gamers. We’re playing games on phones, tablets, computers, game consoles, social networks, and even… Read More

Prescribing “atypical” antipsychotic medications to children and young adults with behavioral problems or mood disorders may put them at unnecessary risk for type 2 diabetes, a Vanderbilt University Medical Center study shows. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers are finding that Jamaicans are feeling more confidence in their local police as they report decreasing incidences of bribe solicitation. Read More

Billy Webb knows every nook and cranny of Vanderbilt. He knows the name of the young woman who sells him a no-whip iced mocha in the Courtyard Café on treatment days, the ladies who check him in at the front desk and the nurse who comes around to check his… Read More

In matters of giving, venture capitalist Robby van Roijen recommends following your heart, the same course he took in establishing Vanderbilt’s first endowed fund in cardiac innovation. “The thing I like about giving to Vanderbilt is that the money is actually going to producing something that will eventually make the… Read More

During a tour 30 years ago of what is now the Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center, Tom Flood witnessed an extraordinary event. “What I saw and what I heard that day made a tremendous impression on me. I was so touched by my experience,” Flood said. Read More

The Rev. Dr. Emilie M. Townes will be installed as the 16th dean of Vanderbilt University Divinity School Aug. 23 at Benton Chapel. The school’s opening convocation and installation service, which is open to the public, begins at 5 p.m. and will be streamed live on this page. Update: Watch the… Read More

Photo essay by Daniel Dubois, Joe Howell and John Russell Long ago in the Land of Commodores, the taking down of Commencement tents ushered in three long and languid months. Professors abandoned their neckties and headed to the cooler elevations of places like Beersheba Springs. Nashville children spent their days… Read More

Cumberland Pediatric Alliance (CPA) is joining the Vanderbilt Health Affiliated Network (VHAN). The transition of operations is expected to be complete by October. Read More

Cardiac surgeons recently performed Vanderbilt Heart and Vascular Institute’s 100th ventricular assist device (VAD) implant. Read More

Vanderbilt University Medical Center is now certified as Tennessee’s only teaching site for an advanced trauma surgical skills training course offered at fewer than 50 hospitals worldwide. Read More

Neal Patel, M.D., MPH, has been named chief medical informatics officer for the Vanderbilt University Health System. Patel, professor of Clinical Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, has served as the inpatient chief medical information officer since 2006. Read More

Nora Volkow, M.D., director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, will begin the 2013-2014 Flexner Discovery Lecture Series next Thursday, Aug. 29, with a discussion of “Advances in Addiction Science.” Read More

Robert and Michele McClellan expected the experience of their infant son’s birth via cesarean section to be like that of other women who had had the procedure — unable to witness their son’s exit from the womb and for him to be immediately whisked away. Read More

Gautam Bhave, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of Medicine, is receiving the Burroughs Wellcome Fund 2013 Career Award for Medical Scientists (CAMS) for his research on the role of peridoxasin and protein halogenation in diabetic nephropathy. Read More

Utpal Davé, M.D., and Sandra Zinkel, M.D., Ph.D., have each received one-year, $100,000 “bridge grants” from the American Society of Hematology (ASH) to support research that has not been funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) due to budget cuts. Read More

A telemedicine initiative in Vanderbilt’s Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences is working to make follow-up hearing tests for newborns more accessible in rural areas of Tennessee, while teaching young pediatric audiology and pediatric speech language pathology students to treat patients remotely. Read More