Research

VU researcher wants closer look at feature to address traffic issues A new, open-road test of adaptive cruise control demonstrated that the feature, designed to make driving easier by continuously adjusting a vehicle’s speed in response to the car ahead, doesn’t yet solve the problem of phantom traffic jams. Because human drivers are responsible for... Read More

For the experiment, the team put seven different cars from two manufacturers on a rural highway and simulated actual driving conditions. 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

Vanderbilt senior Kris Quah has been named to the second global cohort of Knight-Hennessy Scholars, which was selected from a pool of more than 4,000 applicants. The program awards full funding for postgraduate study at Stanford University to up to 100 graduate students each year in order to develop a community of future global leaders... Read More

Cultural norms can affect how we respond to mistreatment at work, but it is possible to shift that perspective to make it easier to call out wrongdoers who are closely related. Read More

Army Futures Command and Vanderbilt University signed an agreement April 9 that links creative, innovative soldiers with top-tier Vanderbilt University experts so that ideas quickly can become useful products. Leaders from the two groups say this five-year education partnership agreement is a potential model for military-academic collaboration across the nation, not only on research and... Read More

In 2016, a surprising decline in life expectancy was ascribed to "deaths of despair" among working-class middle-aged white men displaced by a changing economy. However, new research shows indicators of despair are rising among Americans approaching middle age regardless of race, education and gender. 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

Rama Kumaran initially intended to study both science and flute when he came to Vanderbilt. He says he didn’t come expecting to know everything. “But I expected to do everything," he says. 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