Health And Medicine

Researchers at Vanderbilt have identified what may be a genetic “smoking gun” for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) — a mutation in the gene for the critical neuronal protein CaMKII. Read More

As a fellow in pulmonary and critical care medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Bradley Richmond, M.D., saw a lot of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), an inflammatory lung disease caused most often by long-term exposure to cigarette smoke. Read More

Removing tonsils modestly reduced throat infections in the short term in children with moderate obstructive sleep-disordered breathing or recurrent throat infections, according to a systematic review conducted by the Vanderbilt Evidence-based Practice Center for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Read More

High dose flu vaccine boosts the immune response in older adults by increasing activation of certain immune cells. Read More

“Epigenetic signatures” in DNA may present an opportunity for prevention of or early intervention in childhood obesity. Read More

The compound MPLA is an attractive vaccine component, designed to elicit a robust immune response. Read More

Although cancers arising from different areas of the large intestine are heterogeneous, they appear to use similar important tumorigenic pathways. Read More

Integrins are membrane proteins made up of combinations of different “alpha” and “beta” subunits that enable cells throughout the body to interact with their surroundings. Read More

Metastatic pancreatic cancer — cancer that has spread from the pancreas to other tissues and is responsible for most patient deaths — changes its metabolism and is “reprogrammed” for optimal malignancy, according to new findings reported Jan. 16 in Nature Genetics. Read More

Since it was created in 1949, the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) has been one of the most widely used requirements for admission to U.S. graduate schools. As a predictor of performance and success in graduate school, however, the exam is not without its critics. Read More

The duration of exposure to daylight, or the “photoperiod,” may affect development of seasonal affective disorder by programming serotonin neurons in the brain, according to Vanderbilt University researchers. Read More

Cognitive and attention deficits observed in children following surgery before age 5 to repair congenital heart defects likely will persist into their teens and young adulthood. Read More

Researchers in the Schools of Medicine and Engineering at Vanderbilt University have discovered a proteomic “signature” from the airways of heavy smokers that could lead to better risk assessment and perhaps new ways to stop lung cancer before it starts. Read More

It comes down to privacy — biomedical research can’t proceed without human genomic data sharing, and genomic data sharing can’t proceed without some reasonable level of assurance that de-identified data from patients and other research participants will stay de-identified after they’re released for research. Read More

Preschool-age children from low-income families are more likely to be physically active if parents increase activity and reduce sedentary behavior while wearing movement monitors (accelerometers), according to a Vanderbilt study published today in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Read More

To improve medical management of crisis situations, clinicians should be trained to use cognitive aids – checklists and concise manuals. Read More

Vanderbilt investigators recommend that the presence of tumor deposits in the abdomen be included when staging midgut neuroendocrine tumors. Read More

Vanderbilt University School of Medicine has long been recognized as a national leader in biomedical research. Nowhere is this more evident than in the school’s Department of Medicine, which, during the 2016 federal fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, broke another record. Read More

A new computer algorithm developed at Vanderbilt could save billions of dollars in health care costs by identifying patients at risk for readmission after being hospitalized for heart failure. Read More

Nominations for this year’s Vanderbilt Prize Scholar are now being accepted. Vanderbilt Prize Scholars are female graduate students in the biomedical sciences who are mentored by the winner of the Vanderbilt Prize in Biomedical Science. Read More