Leigh MacMillan

Vasorelaxing peptides could offer a promising therapeutic strategy for reducing the neurological deficits caused by subarachnoid hemorrhage-induced cerebral blood vessel constriction. Read More

A compound that increases lifespan in yeast is offering clues to pharmacological approaches that might slow the aging process and improve health. Read More

Using primary cells from patients with chronic myelomonocytic leukemia, Vanderbilt researchers found synergistic inhibition of cell viability and proliferation, suggesting a new treatment strategy. Read More

Charles Sanders, PhD, and colleagues show how a “supertrafficking” mutant potassium channel contributes to heart rhythm abnormalities. Read More

Tumors consume glucose at high rates, but a team of Vanderbilt researchers has discovered that cancer cells themselves are not the culprit, upending models of cancer metabolism that have been developed and refined over the last 100 years. Read More

Unique somatic gene mutations may contribute to racial disparities in the incidence of Wilms tumor — the most common childhood kidney cancer. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers have developed a response score using genetic and clinical information to aid prescribing of the widely used pain medication codeine. Read More

Richard Tsien, PhD, director of the Neuroscience Institute at NYU Langone Medical Center, will deliver the next web-based Discovery Lecture. Read More

An FDA-approved medication enhances the function of T regulatory cells (Treg), a class of immune cells that restrains the immune response, Vanderbilt investigators have discovered. Read More

Distinct cancer-associated fibroblasts in the prostate tumor microenvironment may influence tumor progression and could point to new therapeutic targets. Read More

In HIV-positive individuals with diabetes, immune cells in fat are more proinflammatory and cytotoxic and may represent a therapeutic target for diabetes. Read More

A novel hormone deficiency may exist in humans, Vanderbilt investigators have discovered. In an analysis of two decades worth of electronic health records, the researchers found that some patients have unexpectedly low levels of natriuretic peptide hormone in clinical situations that should cause high levels of the hormone. Read More

The emergence of pathogenic skin fungi that cause the disease chytridiomycosis is contributing to the global loss of amphibian populations.  Read More

Disrupting the action of glucagon — a pancreatic hormone that works to raise blood glucose — restores functional insulin-producing cells in mouse models of type 1 diabetes and may be a promising treatment strategy. Read More

Mukesh Jain, MD, vice dean for Academic Affairs and Medical Sciences and professor of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University, will discuss the discovery of aging-related disease genes and pathways during the next web-based Discovery Lecture. Read More

In patients with glioblastoma brain tumors, features detected on MRIs at diagnosis were associated with survival, Vanderbilt Medical Center investigators found. Read More

Sabine Fuhrmann and colleagues have discovered a novel underlying cause of coloboma — a birth defect that causes missing tissue in the eye and accounts for up to 10% of childhood blindness. Read More

Genetic variation that impacts glucose- and insulin-related signaling affects responses to type 2 diabetes treatments and warrants further study. Read More

Valeria Reyes Ruiz, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, has been selected as a 2020 Hanna Gray Fellow by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). Read More

A noninvasive, quantitative MRI method could be used after surgical repair of traumatic peripheral nerve injury to help clinicians make decisions about whether additional surgical interventions are needed. Read More