Research – VUMC Reporter

Tobacco smoking has been linked to approximately 2 million deaths among adult men and women in Asia in recent years, according to a new study that predicts a rising death toll. Read More

Simple heat treatments may give the frog immune system a boost and help it fight off a deadly fungal pathogen, according to a new study published July 10 in the journal Nature. Read More

The commonly held notion that the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 has eroded teacher job satisfaction and undermined job retention is off the mark, according to new Vanderbilt research. Read More

Private Property and Government Inaction | Probiotic Could Prevent Obesity | Freedom from Power Cords | Pickiness Doesn’t Always Pay Read More

Vanderbilt psychologists Robert Reinhart and Geoffrey Woodman show that selectively manipulating one’s ability to learn through the application of a mild electrical current to the brain is possible, and that this effect can be enhanced or depressed depending on the direction of the current. Read More

“Doctor shopping,” or going to multiple doctors for narcotic prescriptions, is prevalent among more than 20 percent of orthopedic trauma patients, according to a new Vanderbilt study. Read More

An ultrafast, ultrasmall optical switch could advance the day when photons replace electrons in the innards of consumer products ranging from cellphones to automobiles. Read More

Lone star tick bites are likely the cause of thousands of cases of severe red-meat allergies plaguing patients in Southeastern states and spreading up the Eastern Seaboard. Read More

Marijuana's effects on the brain | Income inequality's impact on Americans' health | Evolutionary mismatch between humans, microbes | Music therapy for premature babies Read More

Gifted children are likely to be the next generation’s innovators and leaders—and yet, the exceptionally smart are often invisible in the classroom, lacking the curricula, teacher input and external motivation to reach full potential. Read More

Recent work has shown that in addition to the reduction in stomach size, many metabolic and hormonal changes likely underlie the beneficial effects of bariatric surgery. Read More

Cancer researchers have been searching for biomarkers that indicate which patients should be treated aggressively and which patients can be followed through active surveillance. Now researchers at Vanderbilt and the University of Alberta in Canada have identified a biomarker for a cellular switch that accurately predicts which prostate cancer patients are likely to have their cancer recur or spread. Read More

Not enough has been done to protect the economy from the boom and bust cycles that brought the United States to the brink of disaster in 2008–09, says a Vanderbilt economist. Read More

The iPad may hold the key to enabling children with autism spectrum disorders to express themselves through speech. | Children hospitalized for pneumonia have similar outcomes, including length of stay and costs, regardless of whether they are treated with “big gun” antibiotics or more narrowly focused antibiotics such as penicillin. | It’s time to drop the requirement that inventions be “useful” in order to merit a patent, says Sean B. Seymore. Read More

Student Ownership, Responsibility Are Keys to Success Why are some high schools better than others at boosting achievement among traditionally underserved students? A new report from the National Center on Scaling Up Effective Schools (NCSU), based at Vanderbilt’s Peabody College of education and human development, finds that student… Read More

Physician Exodus Is Diminishing Health Care Where It’s Needed Most The past decade has seen a dramatic rise in the number of physicians trained in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) emigrating to the United States, resulting in a “brain drain” on nations in the greatest need for affordable and accessible health care. Read More

Researchers Stalk Deadly Flu Viruses Using New Weapons The high mortality rate of a new strain of bird flu that emerged in China last spring has caused the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to issue provider alerts to watch for flu-like illness in recent travelers and prompted… Read More

Transplant Procedure Overcomes Blood-Type Incompatibility More young children could receive life-saving heart transplants in the future, if a procedure performed for the first time at Vanderbilt becomes accepted practice. Pediatric cardiac surgeons at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt recently performed the state’s first ABO-incompatible heart… Read More

‘Yo-Yo Dieting’ May Cause Metabolic Dysfunction The cycles of weight loss and gain that accompany “yo-yo dieting” increase the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. However, exactly how weight cycling increases metabolic dysfunction—more than steady weight gain alone—is unknown. © istock.com / Karen Roach… Read More

Credit: HARRY CAMPBELL You’re walking down the street when a shot rings out. You duck for cover and pull out your smartphone. A map of the neighborhood pops up on the screen with a red arrow pointing in the direction the shot came from. A team of… Read More