Health And Medicine

New research by School of Nursing professor Sheila Ridner finds that a special scan measuring lymphatic fluid volume is significantly better than a tape measure at predicting which women undergoing treatment for breast cancer are at risk of developing a common complication resulting from damaged lymph nodes. Read More

Mary Jo Gilmer is piloting new research into the effectiveness of therapy dogs in reducing the anxiety of children with cancer. Read More

Postdoctoral scholars Samantha Yohn and Anneke Sanders and ophthalmology professor Rebecca Sappington were honored by the Graduate School at the 13th Annual Vanderbilt Postdoctoral Association Symposium on April 9. Read More

Benign lesions caused by a common fungus can mimic those caused by cancer in the lungs. A Vanderbilt research team is on the hunt for a non-invasive way for doctors to tell the two diseases apart. Read More

Asian countries are in the early stages of a tobacco smoking epidemic with habits mirroring those of the United States from past decades, setting the stage for a spike in future deaths from smoking-related diseases. Read More

Using a unique computational framework they developed, a team of scientist cyber-sleuths in the Vanderbilt University Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics and the Vanderbilt Genetics Institute has identified 104 high-risk genes for schizophrenia. Read More

A team of researchers from Vanderbilt University’s schools of law, medicine and management has received a five-year research grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality of the Department of Health and Human Services to develop and test “safe harbor” standards of care based on scientific evidence. Read More

Eric Skaar and colleagues have figured out how a common bug responsible for ventilator-associated pneumonia responds when starved of zinc, a metal it needs to survive, which may lead to new therapeutic targets for the dangerous infection. Read More

A report by researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center has shattered conventional wisdom about how cells, including cancer cells, shed DNA into the bloodstream. Read More

Jonathan Schoenecker, Stephanie Moore-Lotridge and colleagues have found a new target for treating a condition that causes bone to form in soft tissue, reducing mobility. Read More

Vsevolod Gurevich and colleagues have discovered new insights into arrestin proteins, which turn off a cell's environmental message "inbox." Read More

Austin Kirschner and colleagues are learning more about how the cancer drug enzalutamide combines with radiation therapy to treat difficult prostate tumors. Read More

A commonly used muscle relaxant can cause severely low blood pressure in patients already taking a CYP1A2 inhibitor, such as ciprofloxacin, find Cecilia Chung and colleagues. Read More

Jonathan Soslow and colleagues have found more clues to why people with Duchenne muscular dystrophy are at risk for a certain kind of heart problem. Read More

Stephen Fesik and colleagues have uncovered more details about how a crucial component of RAS proteins, which trigger about a third of all tumors, work. This finding will help advance the discovery of new cancer therapies. Read More

A medicine currently being tested as a chemoprevention agent for multiple types of cancer has more than one trick in its bag when it comes to preventing stomach cancer, Vanderbilt researchers have discovered. Read More

VUMC has received significant grants to study pulmonary fibrosis, a progressive and irreversible disease characterized by shortness of breath and a dry cough. Read More

Jason McGurn and colleagues have uncovered new insights into the complex and highly coordinated endocytic trafficking mechanism, which is an essential part of many cellular processes including sodium resorption by the kidney and regulation of blood plasma sodium levels. Read More

A $3.4 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health will fund Vanderbilt research on treatment resistance in patients with major depressive disorder and schizophrenia. Read More

Commonly thought to be harmless, enlargement of fluid-filled in the brain have been linked to cognitive problems in older adults. Read More