External Story

The New England Journal of Medicine has published a detailed account by April Pettit and colleagues at Vanderbilt University describing one man’s rapid deterioration after receiving a tainted steroid injection for back pain from the New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Mass. Read More

Homeschools are emerging as a kind of invisible rival to charter schools for parents seeking alternatives to the public school system, according to the Washington Post. Joseph Murphy, Frank W. Mayborn Chair, Dean of Special Projects and author of “Homeschooling in America: Capturing and Assessing the Movement,” is quoted extensively. Read More

Peter Pintauro, H. Eugene McBrayer Professor of Chemical Engineering and chair of the chemical and biomolecular engineering department, has partnered with researchers from the University of Kansas and TVN Systems, Inc. on a three-year, $1.72 million grant from the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy of the U.S. Department of Energy to develop a durable, low-cost battery capable of gathering power at off-peak hours and storing it for use during times of high demand. Read More

The goal of the Adaptive Vehicle Make program is to develop software to test vehicle designs before they are built. Read More

Two mechanical engineering graduate students and their professor have received the Wyss Institute-IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society Award for Translational Research for their work on a robotic leg prosthesis, selected from submissions by biomedical engineers and scientists from academic institutions worldwide. Read More

Patrick Grohar, M.D., Ph.D., was awarded a $250,000 Hyundai Hope on Wheels grant last week for his research into potential drug therapies for Ewing sarcoma, a cancer of the bone. Hyundai’s most recent donation to the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt is the largest one-time grant the company… Read More

Public education is fundamental to the aims of promoting democracy, social efficiency, and social mobility, writes Claire Smrekar, associate professor of leadership, policy and organizations at Peabody. Read More

Christopher Loss, assistant professor of public policy and higher education at Peabody College, authored this opinion piece about the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act. Read More

In Nature, Peabody professor John M. Braxton calls for teaching-integrity committees to deal with academics who fail in their responsibilities. Read More

Peabody researchers Claire Smrekar and James Fraser comment on the economic and social problems created by high housing and transportation costs for low-income workers. Read More

The Systems Biology and Bioengineering Undergraduate Research Experience Searle Undergraduate Research Initiative is one of only a handful of multiyear, year-round undergraduate research programs in the nation. Read More

Obesity increases the risk of acute kidney injury following cardiac surgery, according to a Vanderbilt study published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. Read More

Vanderbilt University researchers were one of nine teams invited to participate in the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering’s 10th anniversary technology showcase June 22 in Bethesda, Maryland. NIBIB is an institute within the National Institutes of Health. Read More

Jamey Young, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, likes to build bridges. But rather than physical structures, Young focuses on spanning the divide between biology and engineering, diabetes and cancer, and plants and animals. Read More

Intensive care units at Vanderbilt University Hospital and the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt are achieving exceptionally low rates of central line-associated blood stream infection (CLABSI), according to a report released this week by the Tennessee Department of Health. Read More

The Health Care Innovation Award from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is one of the largest federal research grants awarded to VUMC investigators. The funding will support the implementation and evaluation of MyHealthTeam, a model of team-based care that couples collaborative health care teams with health information technology in order to improve control of chronic conditions. Read More

Nonsupportive family members contribute to poor adherence to medication regimens and lower glycemic control in adults with diabetes. Read More

Heart disease is still the leading cause of death for men in Tennessee and cancer deaths continue to move further away from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Healthy People 2020 goal, according to the 2012 Tennessee Men’s Health Report Card. Read More

A study led by Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center investigators has identified a gene expression pattern that may explain why chemotherapy prior to surgery isn’t effective against some tumors and suggests new therapy options for patients with specific subtypes of breast cancer. Read More

An international study co-led by researchers at Vanderbilt University has uncovered six new “susceptibility loci,” chromosomal regions located in or near genes that may play a role in atrial fibrillation, the most commonly diagnosed heart condition. Read More