Leigh MacMillan

An international genetic study using multiancestry biobanks has identified novel genetic locations associated with primary open-angle glaucoma, the most common type of glaucoma and the leading cause of irreversible blindness globally. Read More

Katherine Hartmann, MD, PhD, Vice President for Research Integration for Vanderbilt University Medical Center, has been named director of the University of Kentucky (UK) Center for Clinical and Translational Science. Read More

The “Molecular Muse” art exhibit on display in Light Hall is a sampling of pieces from the Vanderbilt Institute for Infection, Immunology, and Inflammation Artist-in-Residence (VI4-AiR) program, which brings together scientists and artists to create and promote art as a visual science communication tool. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers have discovered that beneficial bacteria in the small intestines produce a compound that protects against obesity. Read More

Pasteurization of breast milk affects the concentration of osteopontin, a bioactive protein with roles in intestinal, immunological and brain development — suggesting that osteopontin supplementation should be considered when donor milk is provided to preterm infants. Read More

A comprehensive study that integrates multiple analytic approaches has linked a regulatory gene network and functional defects in insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells to Type 2 diabetes. Read More

Vanderbilt research discovers that iron storage “spheres” inside the bacterium C. diff — the leading cause of hospital-acquired infections — are important for infection in an animal model and could offer new targets for antibacterial drugs. Read More

Vanderbilt research shows that commensal gut microbes impact the host-pathogen competition for iron and have implications for therapeutic strategies aimed at preventing pathogens from acquiring essential nutrients. Read More

A multidisciplinary team of investigators has received a 2023 Endeavor Award from The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research to support four closely linked projects exploring the fundamental mechanisms that drive the obesity-cancer connection, Read More

A Vanderbilt study found that a molecular signature that predicts aggressive thyroid cancer could help guide treatment approaches for patients. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers have demonstrated that a cluster of microRNAs — small pieces of RNA that regulate gene expression — work in a type of immune cells called macrophages to help protect against metabolic defects in obesity. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers found that that T cells become “exhausted” within hours of encountering a tumor, challenging existing ideas about how T cells become dysfunctional. Read More

New research shows that about half of pediatric patients who died of sepsis over the past 20 years at Vanderbilt University Medical Center had evidence of an inflammatory state called persistent inflammation, immunosuppression and catabolism syndrome. Read More

Vanderbilt's Mariana Byndloss, DVM, PhD, is one of eight Burroughs Wellcome Fund 2023 Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease. Read More

Vanderbilt research finds that GLP1 receptor agonists — a class of diabetes medications — are associated with fewer major adverse cardiovascular events than another type of diabetes drug (DPP4 inhibitors) in older veterans with no prior heart disease. Read More

A new technique will allow researchers to track subsets of immune cells that patrol and defend the lungs, to better understand the roles of these cells during lung inflammation, infection and injury. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers detail the landscape of RNA editing — a form of RNA modification — in primary effusion lymphoma cells during Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus infection and identify an edited viral microRNA that is critical for infection. Read More

Vanderbilt's Wenhan Zhu, PhD, has received a three-year award from the G. Harold and Leila Y. Mathers Foundation to support his research that aims to answer a fundamental question about bacterial physiology and engineer probiotics to improve gut inflammatory diseases. Read More

A Vanderbilt study found that prostate cancer polygenic risk score has limited utility for enhancing prostate cancer screening. Read More

Vanderbilt investigators have discovered that vasopressin, which has long been thought to be produced only in the brain, is also produced in the kidney. Read More