Health And Medicine

The industrial chemical BPA is found in commercial products, such as plastic water bottles. (iStock Photo) The safety of industrial chemicals bisphenol A (BPA) and alkylphenols, which are used in commercial products like plastics, has recently been called into question. Exposure to these chemicals is typically measured… Read More

Tina Hartert, M.D., MPH, left, Kathryn Miller, M.D., MPH, and Yarris Muhammed are on the team studying the links between rhinoviruses and bronchiolitis. (Mary Donaldson / Vanderbilt) An infant’s risk of developing bronchiolitis caused by human rhinoviruses (HRV), aka the common cold, is linked to whether the mother has allergies… Read More

(Photo credit: iStock photo) In the battle of the bulge, one important battalion is a set of brain cells expressing the melanocortin-4 receptor (MC4R). Via signals from the fat-derived hormone leptin, these neurons regulate feeding behavior and fat metabolism in an attempt to regulate body weight. But how leptin influences… Read More

Volunteer Becky Clark reads to a student at the Mama Lere Hearing School at Vanderbilt (Anne Rayner / Vanderbilt) OPTION Schools Inc., in collaboration with the Vanderbilt Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, is conducting a study looking at how children who are deaf or hard of hearing… Read More

Peter Hedera, M.D. Hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP), a group of progressive neurodegenerative disorders that impairs the ability to walk, can be caused by mutations in more than 40 different genes. Despite this genetic heterogeneity, the pathologic features – degeneration of long axons in the spinal cord – are relatively uniform,… Read More

Every few months, chemist Brian Bachmann sheds his white lab coat, collects his flashlight, helmet, surgical gloves and knotted rope, puts on old clothes and hiking boots and heads to a nearby cave. Bachmann, an assistant professor of chemistry at Vanderbilt, has combined his industrial experience in… Read More

Jonathan Haines and his colleagues at Vanderbilt are part of a global collaboration to discover and map all genes relating to Alzheimer's disease. (Daniel Dubois / Vanderbilt University) Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and across the globe, announced today a multi-national collaboration to discover and map all genes relating… Read More

David Gius, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues are studying an aging-associated protein’s role in the development of breast cancer in older women. (Vanderbilt University/photo by Mary Donaldson) The most common type of breast cancer in older women – estrogen and progesterone receptor (ER/PR) positive breast cancer – has been linked to… Read More

(Photo credit: iStock photo) Breast cancer patients who have a strong social support system in the first year after diagnosis are less likely to die or have a recurrence of cancer, according to new research from Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center and the Shanghai Institute of Preventive Medicine. The study, led… Read More

Left to right: Karen Gregory, Elizabeth Hammock, Peilin Jia, John Panos Eight Vanderbilt University scientists have won 2010 Young Investigator Awards from NARSAD, the world’s leading mental health research charity. Each scientist will receive up to $60,000 over two years for innovative brain and behavioral studies of serious psychiatric disorders. Read More

Nathan Roberts, an 18-month-old patient from Snead, Ala., whose heart has been operating with the help of a mechanical assistance device called the Berlin Heart since May 27, 2010, received a donor heart early yesterday morning at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. Doctors say the transplant surgery went… Read More

Personalized medicine refers to the relationship between genetic differences among individuals and corresponding differences in their chemical state and how they respond to various nutrients, drugs, and compounds in their environment. (Photo courtesy of Scripps Research Institute) Leftover blood samples from Vanderbilt’s clinics are retrieved daily from the Pathology lab. Read More

Seven Vanderbilt University faculty members have been elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, an honor bestowed upon them by their AAAS peers. They are among 503 AAAS members from around the country who achieved this honor because of their distinguished efforts to advance science… Read More

RSV prefers stressed cells “Stress granules” – globs of proteins and RNAs – form inside cells in response to environmental stressors and are thought to regulate protein production. Several viruses induce stress granule formation, but the function of these structures during virus replication is not well understood. James Crowe Jr.,… Read More

During the past 18 months, scientists at Vanderbilt University have received $148 million under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to buy major equipment, hire additional staff and accelerate their research. University officials predicted the impact of the 246 two-year “stimulus” grants awarded to more than 200 researchers across campus… Read More

Ezra Fitz (Photo credit: Daniel Dubois, Vanderbilt University) In late January of 2006, I was looking neither at tide pools, nor at stars. I was staring intently – just as I am now, as I’m writing this – into a computer screen, trying to cover a bone-white Word document with… Read More

Dr. Stephen Raffanti, M.D., with Loren Antes at the Comprehensive Care Clinic opening. (Photo credit: Joe Howell, Vanderbilt University) Loren Antes, 41, was dying to stay alive – literally. Diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in 1987, Antes was subjected to a pharmaceutical regime that just about killed him. Each day he faced… Read More

Anita Mahadevan-Jansen, Duco Jansen and Peter Konrad Using beams of light to allow amputees not only to control but also to feel the movement of prosthetic limbs is the ambitious goal of a new $5.6 million Department of Defense initiative. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is tapping the… Read More

A new report from the National Research Council offers insights into 31 doctoral programs at Vanderbilt University, and finds the programs to be competitive with those at other top research institutions in the United States. The report is based on data collected for the 2005-2006 academic year… Read More

Researchers at Vanderbilt will begin a landmark study to examine how social stress contributes to disparities in health among minority populations. Vanderbilt University is launching a landmark study in Nashville to look at the role stress plays in the health disparities observed across socioeconomic status and race. The study will… Read More