Releases

Combining two drugs reduced colorectal cancer cell growth in vitro and in an animal model, suggesting the combination may be a promising treatment for patients. Read More

Surgical patients are being given more opioids than they need for postsurgical pain management, raising the risk of addiction. Read More

Vanderbilt University Medical Center has been awarded a one-year, $34-million grant by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health, to conduct a nationwide study of “convalescent plasma” as a treatment for COVID-19. Read More

Excess dietary salt activates immune cells to induce inflammation and hypertension, supporting current recommendations for low sodium consumption. Read More

Vanderbilt scientists have discovered a new target for normalizing tumor blood vessels to improve cancer immunotherapies. Read More

A small-molecule “scavenger” that reduces inflammation and formation of atherosclerotic plaque in blood vessels in mice potentially could lead to a new approach for treating atherosclerosis in humans, according to researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Read More

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have identified antibodies that, in animals, block infection by alphaviruses, which can cause chronic and debilitating joint pain and arthritis and are an increasing global health concern. Read More

While 60 percent of people with metastatic melanoma, an aggressive type of skin cancer, have multiple treatment options available to them, roughly 40 percent either do not respond to treatment, or relapse. Read More

In laboratory experiments, a chemical compound found in the shell of the cashew nut promotes the repair of myelin, a team from Vanderbilt University Medical Center reported Aug. 17 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Read More

An inflammatory factor in mucus could be a biomarker of treatment-resistant chronic sinusitis used to determine which patients are at risk for repeat sinus surgery. Read More

Each week a woman consumes alcohol during the first five to 10 weeks of pregnancy is associated with an incremental 8% increase in risk of miscarriage, according to a study published this week by Vanderbilt University Medical Center researchers. Read More

A computational technique that combines the effect of multiple genomic variants has the potential to identify high-risk individuals for cancer prevention. Read More

Identifying the norovirus genotypes associated with more severe infections in children could guide strain selection for candidate norovirus vaccines. Read More

Deborah Lannigan and colleagues identify a key regulator of the estrogen receptor and suggest that its downregulation by oral contraceptives may increase oxidative stress and DNA damage, a common cause of cancer. Read More

Appendiceal cancer — cancer of the appendix — is a rare malignancy that is usually found during surgery for acute appendicitis. Although the rate of appendectomies has been stable over the last two decades, the incidence of malignant appendiceal cancer increased 232% in the United States. Read More

Non-white Americans, especially Asian Americans, are at disproportionately higher risk for gastric cancer compared to non-Hispanic white Americans. A new study breaks down this risk according to specific ethnicities and locations within the stomach. Read More

A team of Vanderbilt University and Vanderbilt University Medical Center researchers has received a $3.1 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant to develop advanced, patient-specific cochlear implant stimulation models for customized implant programming. Read More

A new longitudinal study published in the Journal of Educational Psychology from Vanderbilt’s Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth finds that there are no negative effects on the long-term well-being of gifted youth from academic acceleration such as skipping grades, graduating early, or a combination of advanced educational placement methods. Read More

Research on the evolving role of principal supervisors from Vanderbilt’s Peabody College of education and human development was included in two of three reports released July 21 by the Wallace Foundation, a national philanthropy that seeks to improve learning for marginalized children. Read More

Vanderbilt emeritus professor of economics John Vrooman, who had a passion for all things sports and taught one of the most popular classes at Vanderbilt focusing on sports economics, passed away on July 5. Before he passed, Vrooman asked that he not have an official obituary, but fellow economics professor Robert Driskill wrote this remembrance of Vrooman, who had a teaching career that spanned almost five decades. Read More