Research

LISTEN: New ways to treat chronic pain. Creating a “person-centered” judicial system. Challenging outdated ideas about U.S. security. These and more in a special “Highlights of Season 1” episode of the Quantum Potential podcast. Read More

Ela Knapik still remembers the first zebrafish she saw under a microscope—two days old, no bigger than an eyelash, tail wiggling, heart visibly beating. That was more than 20 years ago during her search for a postdoc position. That tiny fish has held her attention ever since and helped unravel many of the biological mysteries she has published about during her professional career. Read More

A new report published by the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator (VPA) proposes “CityRx,” a system of public pharmacies for New York City, which would combine a “public option” for pharmacies with support for independent pharmacies to restore and improve access to pharmacy services for all New Yorkers. Read More

Former Dean of the University of Miami’s College of Engineering and a member of the National Academy of Engineering, Dr. Biswas is globally renowned for his pioneering work in aerosol science. Read More

The Vanderbilt Business professor became the youngest recipient of the Keith G. Provan Distinguished Scholar Award, recognizing a career that has changed how organizations think about safety, reliability, and leadership. Read More

By Jennifer Kiilerich In a Hillsboro High School science lab in Nashville, Tennessee, a group of teens from Metro Nashville Public Schools spent their summer exploring whether filtration with peanuts could aid in creating safe, sustainable water for Ugandan communities. Despite about 7,000 miles between the locales, that work… Read More

The Nashville Innovation Alliance has awarded a Vanderbilt University research team a Civic Tech Jam grant. The recognition is part of the Nashville Tech Studio, an initiative that leverages the expertise of universities in Middle Tennessee to pilot and deploy technology-based solutions that address some of Metro Nashville's largest and most complex challenges. The team—Aniruddha Gokhale, professor of computer science, and Yogesh Barve, research scientist, both based in the Vanderbilt Institute for Software Integrated Systems—was one of five selected. Read More

Last week, representatives from Vanderbilt and EPB hosted an official launch event in Chattanooga to share information about the Institute for Quantum Innovation and Vanderbilt’s quantum campus. Read More

The day 14-year-old Christos Constantinidis finished reading Asimov’s New Guide to Science, he knew he was going to be a scientist. Today, he studies what’s actually happening in our brains when we’re thinking. Read More

Ege Kavalali, chair of the Department of Pharmacology at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Basic Sciences, wants to know how the billions of cells in our brains talk to each other all day. Read More

Do you have a work sweater? That chilly office temperature setting may have its roots in male-dominated society. In his new paper “Heat Is a Power Relation,” published in Feminist Media Histories, Assistant Professor Sasha Crawford-Holland talks about temperature being more than a number on a thermostat or a personal experience. Social structures, technologies and institutions shape who stays comfortable—and whose comfort is taken seriously, he posits—and that information should be taken into account when policymakers think about climate and safety for all populations. Read More

Growing up with an intellectually disabled sibling has challenges, but there are powerful benefits as well—both immediate and lifelong—as revealed by a recent study by Assistant Professor Jessika Boles and two co-authors. The study, published in Research in Developmental Disabilities, collected information from siblings through a survey and online interviews. Boles and her co-authors brought their lived experience to the research; they all have younger siblings with IDD. And Boles has extended her knowledge to helping others; she is faculty director of the Vanderbilt chapter of SibShops—a regular gathering of young people who have siblings with disabilities. Read More

See how mostly engineering students used design thinking to create a garment for a world-renowned artist in a premier global art show. Read More

Inspired by a childhood fascination with medical imaging, Vanderbilt Ph.D. graduate Michael Kim is using advanced brain imaging and AI to better understand Alzheimer's disease and healthy brain aging. His research is helping map the brain's communication pathways and could shape the future of precision medicine. Read More

Turns out it’s better to be three out of 12 than six out of 24, even though they’re technically the same thing. In a recent paper co-authored with Uri Barnea of Bocconi University and Alice Moon of Georgetown University, Associate Professor of Marketing Jackie Silverman examines how people evaluate rankings when they know both the option’s position and the length of the list. The core finding codifies what many of us are guilty of: preferring options ranked within shorter lists over options with equivalent relative standings in longer lists. Read More

For graduate students and postdoctoral fellows contemplating their next career steps, the possibilities can seem both exciting and overwhelming. The Vanderbilt University Office of Biomedical Research Education and Training’s 2026 Annual Career Symposium offered a roadmap to those possibilities, bringing together alums and professionals from across the biomedical enterprise to demonstrate the breadth of careers available to scientists beyond the traditional academic pathway. Read More

At the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Basic Sciences, researchers are advancing neuroscience discoveries through molecular biology, pharmacology, drug discovery, and more. Their work seeks to understand how the brain functions in health and disease, identify new therapeutic targets, and develop innovative treatments for conditions ranging from Alzheimer’s and addiction to depression and epilepsy. Read More

Meet the researcher who pioneered ways to protect online medical data and is training the next generation to advance tech in health and protect your privacy. Read More

Blood sugar spikes after lunch aren’t necessarily all about what you just ate—what you had for breakfast might have made a difference. Vanderbilt researchers are analyzing what people eat, and when, and how that affects liver function and blood sugar and insulin levels throughout the day. This may help clinicians better design individual treatments for patients with diabetes. Read More