Cell And Developmental Biology

Vanderbilt University’s new Center for Computational Systems Biology brings computer science, engineering and biomedical researchers together with clinicians at Vanderbilt University Medical Center to accelerate discovery related to human diseases and conditions. Read More

Christian de Caestecker, a Ph.D. student in the lab of Ian Macara, Louise B. McGavock Professor and chair of the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, has proposed and validated a mechanism that addresses a decades-old mystery surrounding epithelial cells. Read More

Research from the lab of Bill Tansey and other collaborators tested protein inhibitors called WINi against a panel of cancer cells and found that they have strong action against blood cancers and synergize with an FDA-approved cancer drug. Read More

Researchers from the School of Medicine Basic Sciences recently developed an analytical tool called EV Fingerprinting that could lead to the use of “liquid biopsies” as a substitute for traditional biopsies for certain patients or diseases. Read More

Ken Lau, professor of cell and developmental biology, and colleagues have laid out the principles governing the biology of early, precancerous lesions, which are different from the principles that govern cancers. Their authoritative perspective was published in Cancer Discovery in April 2024. Read More

Four Vanderbilt graduate students, faculty advisers named to Howard Hughes Medical Institute Gilliam Fellows Program for their leadership in science and commitment to advancing equity and inclusion in science. Read More

The laboratories of Brian Bachmann and Jonathan Irish have developed a method to discover new small molecules that may kill cancer cells by working through the body’s immune system. Read More

Biologists reveal that tissue perturbations by chemotherapy agents promote stem cell expansion and that fibroblast cells exhibit unexpected, immune-like behavior. Read More

Lung disease experts at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and their colleagues have determined a key factor as to why COVID-19 appears to infect and sicken adults and older people preferentially while seeming to spare younger children. Read More

Matthew Tyska and colleagues have found that an adhesion protein in the gut is necessary for proper intestinal functioning. Read More

A team led by biomolecular engineer John Wilson and cancer biologist Rebecca Cook have found a way to trigger an immune response that targets breast cancer cells. Read More

A complete map of gene expression for the worm may help address broad questions in neuroscience about how gene expression programs establish diverse sets of neurons and how genetic differences contribute to neuronal function in healthy and disease conditions. Read More

A newly discovered role for the "Sonic the Hedgehog" protein in the proper development of the cerebellum. Read More

Chronic inflammation is a predisposing condition for colorectal cancer, the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States. Anna Means, Ph.D., and colleagues have now linked inflammation-driven carcinogenesis in the colon to loss of an important signaling protein called SMAD4. Read More

Lipids in the plasma membrane regulate the position of the contractile ring that is required for cell division, Vanderbilt researchers have discovered. Read More

Vanderbilt scientists have taken an important step toward understanding the way in which injured cells trigger wound healing, an insight essential for improving treatments of all types of wounds. Read More

Vanderbilt University Medical Center cancer researcher James Goldenring, M.D., Ph.D., has received a two-year, $200,000 grant from the DeGregorio Family Foundation in Pleasantville, New York, to begin clinical trials of a potential approach for reversing precancerous stomach lesions. Read More

Vanderbilt investigators have identified novel regulators of insulin-producing beta-cell proliferation and survival, suggesting new targets for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Read More

Vanderbilt investigators have identified an unexpected link between cell survival and the polarized delivery of proteins to the surface of mammary epithelial cells. Read More