Health And Medicine

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center 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

Vanderbilt University Medical Center researchers and co-authors from four other U.S. institutions from the Electronic Medical Records and Genomics (eMERGE) Network are repurposing genetic data and electronic medical records to perform the first large-scale phenome-wide association study (PheWAS), released today in Nature Biotechnology. Read More

Thanks in part to a computer program named “Rosetta,” Vanderbilt University researchers are closer to understanding how the ubiquitous G protein is activated – a discovery that could lead to the design of more specific and effective drugs. Read More

MRI brain scans reveal that children with autism spectrum disorders respond to a narrower range of familiar rewards. Read More

A study of mitochondrial DNA mutations suggests they result from a process that selects for particular mutations in certain tissues. Read More

Eighteen academic and administrative leaders at Vanderbilt University have been elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) this year. Read More

Using computational tools to search for the genetic basis of what makes us human, Vanderbilt Assistant Professor of Biomedical Informatics Tony Capra and colleagues at the University of California-San Francisco have identified promising candidate regions. Read More

Inhibitors of a signaling pathway that is critical to synovial sarcoma tumorigenesis may be useful treatments for this aggressive cancer. Read More

Nearly half of orthopaedic surgeons sustain at least one injury during their career and, in many cases, the resources available to them are inadequate, according to a Vanderbilt study in The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery. Read More

Women with chronic autoimmune diseases who take immunosuppressive medications during their first trimester of pregnancy are not putting their babies at significantly increased risk of adverse outcomes, according to a Vanderbilt study released online by the journal Arthritis and Rheumatism. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers have used bioinformatics analysis of gene expression data to describe molecular “circuits” that drive ovarian cancer. Read More

Amish populations are valuable for genetic research because of their isolation, shared ancestry and homogeneous lifestyles. Read More

Clostridium difficile on the intestinal lining. (Wellcome Images) Clostridium difficile (“C. diff”) infection is a leading cause of hospital-associated diarrhea, and the frequency and severity of infections are on the rise. D. Borden Lacy, Ph.D., associate professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, and colleagues recently demonstrated that the C. Read More

Removal of the neurotransmitter norepinephrine from the space outside cells plays an important role in the regulation of bone remodeling. Read More

Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center’s Breast Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) has been awarded a third round of funding from the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Read More

The Vanderbilt Comprehensive Care Clinic has received a nearly $40,000 grant for 2013-2014 from the Baptist Healing Trust (BHT) for its Pharmacy Support Program, which provides free or low-cost medications to people with HIV/AIDS. Read More

David Cortez, Ph.D., and his Vanderbilt colleagues report new findings that shed light on fundamental processes involved in DNA replication and have implications for cancer therapies that target these processes. Read More

Knowing who your doctor is — and a couple of facts about that person — may go a long way toward improving patient satisfaction, according to a Vanderbilt study in the Journal of Orthopaedic Trauma. Read More

Ken Lau, Ph.D., a new assistant professor in Cell and Developmental Biology, is out to determine the rules that lead to cells converting from one type to another, for example, when a healthy cell becomes a cancer cell. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers have characterized the chemical structures of a series of DNA-protein “crosslinks” that may lead to better ways to avoid the cancer-causing potential of environmental chemicals and prevent some drug toxicities. Read More