Research

By Jenna Somers Alex Astrella At age two Alex Astrella, MEd’23, was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. His parents were told that he had little chance of graduating high school or becoming financially independent. Today, Astrella is the founder and CEO of Blu Star Productions, an award-winning film studio… Read More

The Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center at Vanderbilt University Peabody College of education and human development has launched the Early Childhood Governance Landscape, a new tool that illustrates how states structure early childhood governance—and what those choices mean for coordination, funding, and access to services for young children… Read More

The IRIS Center at Vanderbilt, which provides free online resources about teaching and learning, helped about 1.5 million people from all 50 states, more than 1,000 public school districts and more than 1,500 U.S. colleges and universities. That’s an increase of 15 percent over 2022, reflecting the growing importance of online instructional resources in today’s educational landscape. And its reach is even broader than that—hospitals, health care systems and justice systems logged in to benefit from its effective, evidence-based resources. Read More

Laurie Cutting, Patricia and Rodes Hart Professor of Neuroscience, Department of Special Education (Harrison McClary/Vanderbilt University) Laurie E. Cutting, a pioneering educational neuroscientist devoted to unlocking the mysteries of brain function in learning, has been named the 2025 SEC Faculty Achievement Award winner from Vanderbilt University. The annual award honors… Read More

Fat and protein molecules are essential to human brain health, and there are microscopic transport hubs that make sure the right molecules get to the right cells. If the proteins aren’t interacting properly, they can wind up in the wrong places—a problem that’s been linked to diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and ALS. Research in Associate Professor Lauren Jackson’s lab has uncovered how those proteins interact. Read More

Vanderbilt’s Alan Wiseman co-directs the Center for Effective Lawmaking with University of Virginia professor Craig Volden. Using a combination of 15 metrics, the center defines legislators that “exceed expectations” as those who outperform the center’s benchmark Legislative Effectiveness Scores by 50 percent or more, and high-performers are across the political spectrum. Read More

What does the way we learn have to do with drug addiction? In our fourth episode, Erin Calipari, associate professor of pharmacology and director of the Vanderbilt Center for Addiction Research, joins Provost C. Cybele Raver for an enlightening conversation. In this episode, they discuss nucleus accumbens—the part of our brain that helps us link cues and outcomes—and dissect how it affects the ways we make decisions that can lead to addictions, from food or drugs to behaviors. Read More

Vanderbilt University may submit one application to the TN Arts Commission's Arts Build Communities program. Read More

Kevin Murphy, Andrew W. Mellon Chair in the Humanities and professor of history of art and architecture, and Mary Anne Hunting, BA’80, have uncovered the histories of female architects in the American Modernism period of the U.S. in new research. Read More

A recent study by Paula Luis and Claus Schneider, researchers in the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Basic Sciences Department of Pharmacology and the Vanderbilt Institute of Chemical Biology, has uncovered substantial inconsistencies in the alkaloid content of Corydalis yanhusuo dietary supplements. Read More

In two recent studies funded by the National Institutes of Health, moderate-severe TBI was associated with difficulties in communication, namely remembering spoken language and integrating information in gesture with speech. Both impairments can inhibit a person’s ability to understand and effectively communicate with others, but the research teams hope the studies’ findings could pave the way for improved therapies and assessments to help people with TBI communicate more easily in their daily lives. Read More

Learn about the inspiration that drives biomedical engineer Audrey Bowden in her work using light towards breakthroughs in medical issues from cancers to jaundice to ADHD. Read More

Gov. Bill Lee has appointed Vanderbilt University’s Jesse Spencer-Smith to the Tennessee Artificial Intelligence Advisory Council, which was established last year to guide the ethical and effective use of AI in the state.  Read More

By Jennifer Kiilerich Meghan Burke, professor of special education at Peabody College Only about 20 percent of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities currently access formal support services. Meghan Burke, professor of special education at Vanderbilt Peabody College, has built a career around growing that number, helping… Read More

Kevin Murphy, Andrew W. Mellon Chair in the Humanities and professor of history of art and architecture, and Mary Anne Hunting, BA’80, have uncovered the histories of female architects in the American Modernism period of the U.S. in new research. Read More

By Jenna Somers and Krystal Schmidt Tennessee’s Education Freedom Act of 2025 takes effect in the 2025-2026 school year. In the first year, the Tennessee Department of Education will award 20,000 state-funded scholarships, commonly known as vouchers, to eligible families to support their children’s attendance at scholarship-accepting private schools. Read More

In this thought-provoking fourth episode of Quantum Potential, Vanderbilt University Provost C. Cybele Raver hosts renowned developmental psychologist David Yeager, professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, co-founder of the Texas Behavioral Science and Policy Institute, and author of 10 to 25: The Science of Motivating Young People, for a closer look at how older adults can connect with and empower the next generation. Read More

Vanderbilt University may submit one application to the June 2025 cycle of the Conservation, Food and Health Foundation (CFH) Grants program. Read More

Vanderbilt (VU + VUMC, collaboratively) may choose up to two nominees for the V Foundation 2025 Pediatric Cancer Research Grant Program: one V Scholar OR Translational nominee and one All-Star nominee. Read More

The laboratory of Ege Kavalali, professor and chair of the Department of Pharmacology, published a new paper in Nature Communications that determined that liquid-liquid phase separation plays a key role within the nanostructure of synapses, and that its disruption affects evoked but not spontaneous neurotransmission. Read More