Research

Long-acting opioids are associated with a significantly increased risk of death when compared with alternative medications for moderate-to-severe chronic pain, according to a Vanderbilt study released today in the Journal of the American Medical Assocation (JAMA). Read More

The first study to systematically measure the number of neurons in the brains of birds has found that they have significantly more neurons packed into their small brains than are stuffed into mammalian and even primate brains of the same mass. Read More

The Pew Charitable Trusts has named Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences and Biochemistry Lauren Parker Jackson as a member of its 2016 class of Pew biomedical scholars. Read More

A new report released this week raises questions about “gene drives,” a biological process that can profoundly and rapidly alter the characteristics of entire species. Read More

A new study finds that uninsured heart attack patients are more likely to be transferred. Read More

The provisional name for the newly discovered superheavy element 117 is "tennessine." The name was proposed by Vanderbilt nuclear physicist Joseph Hamilton to honor the state where three members of the international collaboration that made the discovery -- Vanderbilt University, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and University of Tennessee at Knoxville -- are located. Read More

Vanderbilt biologist Kenneth Catania has accidentally discovered that electric eels can make leaping attacks that dramatically increase the strength of the electric shocks they deliver. In doing so, Catania has confirmed a 200-year-old observation by famous 19th-century explorer and naturalist Alexander von Humboldt. Read More

There’s a stark and troubling way that incarceration may diminish the ability of a former inmate to empathize with a loved one behind bars, but existing sociological theories fail to capture it. Read More

New findings identify isoketal-modified proteins as a previously unrecognized feature of pulmonary fibrosis and as a potential therapeutic target for this disease. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers have identified biomarkers that could be useful for evaluating and treating pregnancy-related heart failure. Read More

A genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease in later life appears to benefit younger adults as they age. Read More

High school students performing advanced research at Vanderbilt have the opportunity to share their findings with the scientific community through a journal of their own. Read More

Students who score extremely high on standardized tests as adolescents often become high achievers in adulthood, a new study has confirmed. Read More

Mia Levy, M.D., Ph.D., Ingram Assistant Professor of Cancer Research and director of Cancer Health Informatics and Strategy at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC), has been named a Komen Scholar by the Susan G. Komen organization. Read More

Katherine Gifford, Psy.D., is testing simple questions to see which ones yield the most reliable results as she develops a questionnaire for primary care providers to quickly identify patients at risk for cognitive decline. Read More

A research team at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) will develop a crowdsourcing solution for generating a wide range of labeled data sets from electronic health records (EHRs). Read More

Sepsis, an exaggerated and overwhelming inflammatory response to infection, is a major worldwide killer of babies in the first four weeks of life (neonatal period). Read More

A team at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) has developed and tested software that scans electronic health records in real time to monitor cancer patient survival (from time of diagnosis) according to which genes, if any, are found to carry mutations. Read More

Thirteen interdisciplinary projects, ranging from cellular processes and smart cities to global health care issues, have been selected as the 2016 awardees of the Trans-Institutional Program (TIPs) initiative. Read More

Marc Hetherington and Cecelia Mo will collect prestigious awards in September for their research in political science. Read More