Arts And Science

This past academic year, seven graduate students and one undergraduate student participated in the 2025 Merck Compound Challenge. Created in 2018, the competition gives teams from around the world 48 hours to create a proposed route of chemical steps from a commercial chemical they believe will make the final compound. Read More

Pet parrots often outlive their owners, and Vanderbilt researchers want to know why—because uncovering the biological mechanisms behind exceptional longevity could one day help safely extend the lives of humans. With the support of a new $1.3 million grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation, Vanderbilt biologist Gianni Castiglione is taking a bold approach to aging research: reverse-engineering how birds live three to four times longer than similarly sized mammals to identify safe, effective genetic targets for human aging therapies. Read More

A collaboration among VUMC, the College of Arts and Science, the School of Medicine and the School of Engineering has led to some higher-order “hitchhikers” that can make immunotherapy cancer treatments more effective. Associate Professor John Wilson’s lab devised a way to piggyback cancer-fighting nanobodies onto molecules that naturally accumulate around tumors—getting the treatment where it needs to go. Read More

This year’s event will be titled “Vanderbilt University Presents: The Southern Festival of Books, a program of Humanities Tennessee,” marking a new chapter in the life of this storied public event and reflecting Vanderbilt’s deepening investment in the cultural, civic and intellectual fabric of the region. The continuation of the festival is a testament to the power of community. After months of uncertainty following the termination of federal funding, Tennesseans will have the opportunity to celebrate the return of this free event that connects authors and readers at Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park, the Tennessee State Museum and the Tennessee State Library and Archives. Read More

A university requires more than professors, administrators and students to run properly. The preparation of food, maintenance and cleaning of facilities, landscaping and groundskeeping work, and thousands of other essential tasks build the foundation of every place of learning. Even so, conversations between these two worlds can be rare, and when they do occur, might be scaffolded by hierarchical ideas about work. One program, sponsored by the Curb Center in collaboration with Forklift Danceworks, seeks to change this.  Read More

Seven incoming first-year students and three rising sophomores have been selected for the Ingram Scholars Program. They were chosen from among more than 2,000 applicants for the prestigious merit scholarship, awarded each year to students who demonstrate academic excellence and a strong passion for service.  Read More

When economics and communication of science and technology double major Leilani Rucker, Class of 2026, stepped into the Wond’ry’s Fiber Arts Build Lab, she had the feeling her lifelong love for fashion design was about to gain momentum. In the FAB Lab, Manager Alexandra Sargent Capps provides experiential opportunities to promote sustainable fashion and upcycling. Capps piqued Rucker’s interest when she showed up with a bin of colorful neckties from a clothing drive. Rucker’s imagination was sparked, and she set out to create a small upcycled clothing collection to display during Vanderbilt Fashion Week. Read More

In this episode of Quantum Potential, Amanda Little, writer-in-residence at Vanderbilt’s College of Arts and Science, joins Provost C. Cybele Raver to discuss how journalism can highlight the tipping points humanity faces and how people-first storytelling can move us from observation to action. Read More

The Office of Postdoctoral Affairs, in partnership with the Vanderbilt Postdoctoral Association, announced the 2025 award winners at the Spring Postdoc Awards Ceremony on May 21. The event highlighted the vital contributions that postdocs make across various disciplines at the university.   Read More

A recent study from the labs of Lars Plate and Jens Meiler, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, analyzed both selectively responsive and poorly responsive variants of cystic fibrosis and revealed the molecular determinants of drug response. Read More

Danial Asgari, a postdoctoral researcher in the Tate Lab, and Ann Tate, associate professor of Biological Sciences, recently published a study in Molecular Biology and Evolution titled “How the Structure of Signaling Regulation Evolves: Insights from an Evolutionary Model.” Their findings show that negative feedback loops (or NFLs) acting closer to a cell’s final decisions, such as turning genes on or off, are especially resistant to evolutionary change. Read More

While we know that intermediate-mass black holes should exist, little is known about their origins or characteristics—they are considered the rare “missing links” in black hole evolution. However, four new studies have shed new light on the mystery. The research was led by a team in the lab of Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy Karan Jani, who also serves as the founding director of the Vanderbilt Lunar Labs Initiative. Read More

The National Center for Science Education has named Vanderbilt University’s Evolutionary Studies Initiative as one of its 2025 recipients of the prestigious Friend of Darwin award. This national honor recognizes ESI’s outstanding contributions to advancing public understanding of evolution through interdisciplinary research, education and outreach. Read More

Vanderbilt has announced eleven awardees in the latest round of its Innovation Catalyst Fund, an initiative that supports translational research that has promising commercial potential. Read More

In this episode of Quantum Potential, Craig Lindsley, William K. Warren, Jr. Professor of Medicine, University Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry, Chemistry and Pharmacology and executive director of the Warren Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery, joins Provost C. Cybele Raver to discuss transformative research exploring how subtle tweaks to brain chemistry could change the way we treat neurodegenerative diseases and chronic pain. Read More

Vanderbilt-New York City's first foray into public programming invited New York City residents to engage with the university in a three-event series titled “Vanderbilt in the City: Conversations on America.” The series, held between March and May, convened faculty and thought leaders for conversations that explored what it means to be an American today as our role in the world is shifting. Each event drew several hundred attendees, filling the venue to capacity—a strong signal of the enthusiasm for Vanderbilt’s debut programming. Read More

“Creating cuisines is about building community through agriculture and bridging the local with the global,” said Ted Fischer, Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Anthropology, during the opening session of “Food for Thought”—a free program presented by Vanderbilt University and the Frist Art Museum. This series brings together Vanderbilt faculty, Frist curators and local leaders to explore cultural and societal issues through art. The Spring 2025 season focused on two Frist exhibitions: Farm to Table: Art, Food, and Identity in the Age of Impressionism and Tennessee Harvest. Read More

University leaders, faculty, students and invited guests gathered at the McGee Applied Research Center for Narrative Studies to celebrate its new home at the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries’ Central Library. The interdisciplinary center promotes media literacy by providing essential resources to evaluate the objectivity of news coverage, digital media and other narratives.  Read More

Our past has something to say. 2025 Guggenheim Fellow Larisa DeSantis is ready to translate. Read More

Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of English Major Jackson sees poetry as an art best appreciated in communion with others and approached through the senses as much as the intellect. He believes deeply in the power of poetry to break down barriers and foster understanding. Read More