Basic Sciences

Sean Davies, associate professor of pharmacology and associate director of graduate studies for the department, has been awarded a Scaling Success grant from Research Development and Support in the Office of the Vice Provost for Research and Innovation. Read More

Led by Neil Osheroff, Vanderbilt researchers are the first to undertake a systematic analysis of the mechanism of action of gepotidacin, a first-in-class triazaacenaphthylene antibacterial, against its targets in Escherichia coli—the type II topoisomerases gyrase and topoisomerase IV—and the mechanistic basis for drug resistance. E. coli is the etiological agent of most urinary tract infections. Read More

Vanderbilt University Professor of Biochemistry and Vice Dean of Basic Sciences Chuck Sanders and Professor of Biochemistry Bruce Carter have been hard at work searching for therapies, if not a cure, for CMT. Read More

Manuel Ascano, associate professor of biochemistry and pathology, microbiology and immunology, and Dr. Alissa Weaver, Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair and director of the Vanderbilt Center for Extracellular Vesicle Research, are one of nine U.S. research teams awarded funding from the National Science Foundation to more fully understand the potential biotechnological uses of RNA, ranging from crop disease protection to treatments that combat cancer. Read More

Brandt Eichman and Walter Chazin, professors of biochemistry, have worked together to provide a better understanding of how exactly DNA replication is initiated in eukaryotes. Using Vanderbilt’s state-of-the-art instrumentation in the Center for Structural Biology’s Cryo-Electron Microscopy Facility, Eichman, Chazin and their colleagues provided detailed visualizations of a multi-functional protein in action, which sheds light on how DNA replication is initiated in humans. Read More

The lab of Professor of Biochemistry Fred Guengerich has proposed a paradigm shift in the understanding of a critical chemical reaction involved in sterol biosynthesis. Read More

The World Health Organization ranks antimicrobial resistance as one of the top ten global health risks. Vanderbilt researchers led by Houra Merrikh identified the first anti-evolution compound that targets AMR during treatment of infections with antibiotics. Read More

Led by Terunaga Nakagawa, an international collaboration describes for the first time the fundamental mechanism underpinning cellular processes that lead to learning and memory. Read More

Mohammed AlQuraishi, assistant professor at Columbia University, will give an Apex Lecture on Monday, Jan. 29, at 12:00 p.m. CT in 214 Light Hall. His talk, “The State of Protein Structure Prediction and Friends,” is hosted by the School of Medicine Basic Sciences and co-sponsored by the Center for Applied AI in Protein Dynamics. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers, in collaboration with investigators from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the Delft University of Technology, University Hospital Bonn, and Molecular Horizon have developed new protocols to study which molecular pathways might be important in the aging retina and what might cause the formation of deposits in the eye that confer high risk for age-related macular degeneration. Read More

Erin Calipari works to understand how drugs like opioids and cocaine alter learning circuits and neurochemistry in one of the country's epicenters of substance use disorder and addiction. Read More

The Vanderbilt Center for Addiction Research, led by Erin Calipari, advances research to understand how addiction and substance use disorder develops in the brain. VCAR’s goals are to develop new pharmaceutical strategies and to destigmatize addiction as a personal failing. Read More

As a Marshall Scholar, considered among the most accomplished undergraduates and recent graduates in the U.S., Neikirk will pursue advanced degrees in social determinants of health and biomedical imaging. Read More

In just over two years, a Vanderbilt-Neumora collaboration has led to the Phase 1 clinical trial of a treatment for schizophrenia spectrum disorders, which affect 3.7 million adults in the United States. This is the third chemical compound discovered at the Warren Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery to reach Phase 1 clinical trials.     Read More

Vanderbilt has announced the addition of the Warren Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery into Discovery Vanderbilt as well as an initiative within the Dare to Grow campaign to inspire philanthropy with a one-to-one match for gifts of $100,000 or more. Read More

Vanderbilt research discovers that iron storage “spheres” inside the bacterium C. diff — the leading cause of hospital-acquired infections — are important for infection in an animal model and could offer new targets for antibacterial drugs. Read More

As a professor of biochemistry and medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine for more than 40 years, Osheroff is the longest serving course director currently teaching medical students. He also codirects the preclerkship phase of the medical school curriculum and leads the Master Science Teachers cohort, a role established in 2007 to recognize VUSM’s outstanding basic science educators. Through his teaching, he has helped medical students at VUSM and across the globe acquire the basic science skills and knowledge they need to thrive in clinical practice, according to the AAMC. Read More

Join “Hollywood Reimagined with AI” in an in-person Lab-to-Table Conversation on November 10 at Sarratt Cinema. Read More

For his outstanding achievements, including investigations directed at nucleic acid structure, DNA bypass polymerases and the circadian clock, Martin Egli has been elected to the European Academy of Sciences and Arts. The academy is dedicated to innovative research, interdisciplinary and transnational collaboration.  Read More