Biology

Jeffrey Spraggins, associate professor of cell and developmental biology, biochemistry, and chemistry, has been named director of the Mass Spectrometry Research Center. He succeeds Richard Caprioli, Stanford Moore Chair in Biochemistry, who established the MSRC in 1998 and who is retiring this summer. Read More

A Vanderbilt scientific team has succeeded in adjusting the daily biological clock of cyanobacteria, making the blue-green algae a more prolific producer of renewable fuels, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals, like insulin. Read More

The Vanderbilt Memory and Alzheimer's Center hosted its fifth Annual Vanderbilt Alzheimer’s Disease Research Day on April 10 with the theme of “big data.” Aside from presentations from faculty from across campus and the School of Medicine Basic Sciences, the day featured data blitzes, a keynote presentation, and a poster reception with more than 45 posters. Read More

A new study led by members of Ann Tate’s lab found evidence that pleiotropy may slow down evolution of genes involved in immunity. Read More

The Genetics Society of America has presented James O’Connor, a Ph.D. graduate from the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, the 2023 Larry Sandler Award. This international award recognizes the best Ph.D. dissertation on Drosophila—a fly genus that includes the fruit fly, a widely used model organism in biomedical research—from the previous year. Read More

Julián F. Hillyer, professor of biological sciences, and his research team discovered how mosquito immune and circulatory systems are related. This work may lead to the development of novel strategies that protect beneficial insects or harm detrimental ones. Read More

Vanderbilt and the Salk Institute collaborate on the development of a research “road map” that could lead to new ways to detect early signs of tumor formation. Read More

A curriculum directed by biologists Seth and Sarah Bordenstein is responsible for helping countless thousands of college students, schoolkids and citizen scientists worldwide contribute to research on microbes using cutting-edge technology. Read More

Changing the gut microbiome to beat illness really does hold great potential, but first scientists must answer what constitutes a healthy gut microbiome and in whom. Read More

Bordenstein’s team studied Nasonia parasitic wasps, which are about the size of a sesame seed, and they serve as one of the best models to dissect and characterize the evolution of insect genomes. Read More

College of Arts and Science professors Suzana Herculano-Houzel, David Ikard and Robert Talisse are among the speakers at the TEDxNashville event March 16–17 at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center. Read More

A team of Vanderbilt biologists has found that the malaria mosquito has a second complete set of odor receptors that are specially tuned to human scents. Read More

A team of Vanderbilt scientists have identified some of the methods that mutant mitochondrial DNA use to circumvent the molecular mechanisms that cells use to regulate mitochondrial activity. Read More

Summer is here, and the United States is bracing for the mosquito-transmitted Zika virus. A Vanderbilt researcher is working on one way to stop the spread of the disease – by revving up the mosquito’s taste buds. Read More

Vanderbilt mourns the death of biologist, researcher and teacher David E. McCauley, who is remembered as an "inspiring, genuine and incredibly intelligent scientist." Read More

Vanderbilt is one of 220 institutions whose scholars are invited to apply to a new competition. Read More

The contributions of Quarterman and her graduate students to our understanding of the Middle Tennessee cedar glade ecosystem and the comeback of the critically endangered Tennessee coneflower are just part of her well-deserved legacy. Read More

Elsie Quarterman, the first woman to serve as an academic department chair at Vanderbilt and who is best known for her work on the ecology of Tennessee cedar glades, has died. Read More

Three Vanderbilt students have been recognized in this year’s Goldwater Scholars competition. The scholarship is the premier undergraduate award of its type for the fields of mathematics, the natural sciences and engineering. Read More

See how a discovery about mosquito sperm could fight deadly disease; learn where to click for the coolest original music created by Vanderbilt students; and tour the newest evolution of College Halls. All this and more in the latest VUCast, Vanderbilt’s online newscast. Watch now. Read More