Health And Medicine

Treatment in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) saves millions of infants born prematurely every year. But treatment is not without cost. Painful procedures such as needle pricks can impact early brain development. Read More

New findings that reveal complex interactions in esophageal adenocarcinoma could lead to diagnostic, prognostic or therapeutic biomarkers. Read More

The latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention update recommending that women who are pregnant or could become pregnant abstain from alcohol use prompted a Vanderbilt professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and her team to explore the patterns of alcohol use in early pregnancy. Read More

Plastic surgeons at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) have published a prospective study that proves there are specific risk factors — such as obesity, smoking and diabetes — that contribute to development of a major surgical site infection following cosmetic surgery. Read More

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2013 there were 41,149 suicides in the U.S., making it the 10th leading cause of death that year. Among high school students in 2013, the CDC estimates that over the previous 12 months 2.7 percent had sometime made a suicide attempt resulting in injury, poisoning or overdose that required medical attention. Read More

With the help of a drug formerly used to treat HIV/AIDS, researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) have found a way to make melanoma cells more vulnerable to targeted anti-cancer therapy. Read More

A higher abundance of certain bacterial species in the mouth appears to reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes, Vanderbilt investigators have discovered. Read More

Routine use of hydroxocobalamin should be considered for victims of smoke inhalation, Vanderbilt researchers suggest. Read More

A newly identified genetic risk factor for heart block after surgery may help guide the course of postoperative care. Read More

Women who have had repeated depressive episodes tend to pay more attention to negative emotional information, suggesting that they may benefit from cognitive therapy to build new, more positive pathways in their brains. Read More

James Crowe Jr., M.D., director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Center, is the 2017 recipient of the Stanley J. Korsmeyer Award given by the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI), one of the nation’s oldest and most respected honor societies for physician-scientists. Read More

A researcher at Vanderbilt has identified a set of 15 genes that together exhibit a 24-hour gene expression pattern in human blood, constituting a circadian clock biomarker. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers hope their new method to describe cells will be widely adopted and used to generate a “Who’s Who” database of cell types. Read More

DNA replication is an extraordinarily complex multi-step process that makes copies of the body’s genetic blueprint. It is necessary for growth and essential to life. Now researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and Vanderbilt University have found evidence that one of those steps may involve the telephone-like transmission of electrical signals regulated by a chemical “switch.” Read More

The protein beta-catenin may be a good target for therapies to treat lung disease that is a common complication of preterm birth. Read More

Two factors commonly used to evaluate patients with sickle cell disease are associated with each other and can predict increased mortality, Vanderbilt researchers have discovered. Read More

Although nitrous oxide was less effective than epidural anesthesia for pain management during labor, mothers who used nitrous oxide were equally satisfied with their childbirth experience. Read More

A signaling protein overexpressed in upper gastrointestinal cancers is an attractive therapeutic target. Read More

New research from Vanderbilt University eavesdrops on gene expression in human immune system cells before and after vaccination against bird flu. Read More

Linda D. Norman, dean of the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing and Valere Potter Menefee Professor of Nursing, has been named ambassador for the Friends of the National Institute of Nursing Research, an independent nonprofit organization that advocates for nursing science and its role in promoting the health and well-being of Americans. Read More