COVID-19

Reporting Nov. 6 in Cell Reports Medicine, Ivelin Georgiev, PhD, and colleagues demonstrated that antibodies isolated from children’s blood samples displayed high levels of neutralization and potency against variants of the COVID-19 virus, SARS-CoV-2, even when the children had not previously been exposed to or vaccinated against those variants. Read More

The School of Nursing is participating in a new Vanderbilt University Medical Center initiative funded with a $3.9 million grant to VUMC from the Tennessee Department of Health. The initiative will evaluate innovative models of nursing care that include screening and responding to social drivers of health. It will also consider how to mitigate nursing staff shortages and ensure optimal patient care. Read More

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have received a four-year, $28 million grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases to study the relationship between COVID-19 and diabetes. Read More

The status of the COVID-19 pandemic has improved substantially, with cases and hospitalizations continuing to decline in the United States. As a result of these improvements and with the planned ending of the COVID-19 national public health emergency on May 11, 2023, the Public Health Central Command Center will discontinue operations effective May 12, 2023. The Office of Health and Wellness will maintain a small, nimble public health monitoring function moving forward to support any university response to future public health threats. This website will continue to be updated with relevant guidance regarding COVID-19. Read More

Tennessee’s open COVID testing policy reduced actual COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths. Costs of expanded testing were so low that essentially any reduction in the number of deaths due to the policy would justify its cost. Read More

Research from Associate Professor of Medical and Linguistic Anthropology T.S. Harvey demonstrates how a disease’s name can have a significant impact on the public’s perception, attitude and behavior toward the disease. Harvey argues that disease names should be selected with careful consideration of their potential impacts on public health from the framing of risk perceptions through the circulation of harmful misinformation. Read More

A Vanderbilt-led study evaluating two investigational drugs to treat severe COVID-19 demonstrated that neither drug was effective. Read More

A Vanderbilt study concluded that RSV’s ability to mutate rapidly to escape detection by the body’s immune system makes it more challenging to design and develop vaccines that can stop it from spreading. Read More

For his work on zoonotic threat mitigation, Lars Plate was awarded $50,000 from the Research Corporation for Science Advancement and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Read More

SNARE proteins determine how tiny membrane pouches called vesicles fuse with different cellular compartments to transport cargo and organize cells. How cells correctly target individual SNAREs to their destination is poorly understood, but the laboratories of Todd Graham, Jason MacGurn and Lauren Jackson recently published a paper uncovering part of the process that controls this compartmentalization.   Read More

Two Vanderbilt faculty who conducted translational research have received the distinction of Best Invention of 2022 from TIME magazine. TIME’s Best Inventions of 2022 Cover “These winning innovations exemplify the transformative potential of university research when it aims to solve society’s most urgent problems, and when universities partner with the broader innovation ecosystem to bring... Read More

Two Vanderbilt faculty who conducted translational research have received the distinction of Best Invention of 2022 from TIME magazine. TIME’s Best Inventions of 2022 Cover “These winning innovations exemplify the transformative potential of university research when it aims to solve society’s most urgent problems, and when universities partner with the broader innovation ecosystem to bring... Read More

Two Vanderbilt University faculty who conducted translational research have received the distinction of Best Invention of 2022 from TIME magazine.  Read More

Newly published research from Peabody College of education and human development and the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation highlights the perspectives of the paralysis community on COVID-19 vaccine boosters. Among the key findings is evidence that individuals living with paralysis have specific safety concerns that should be addressed… Read More

The Department of Medicine, Health and Society will host a panel discussion, “The Viral Underclass: Pandemic Inequality from HIV/AIDS to COVID-19,” on Tuesday, Nov. 15, from 1:15 to 2:30 p.m. in Furman Hall, Room 114. Read More

The Vanderbilt Vaccine Center will host a campus-wide presentation by Mark Esser, AstraZeneca vice president and head of microbial sciences, about Evusheld, an antibody combination that combats SARS-CoV-2 developed at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The talk will be on Thursday, Nov. 17, at 10 a.m. in Light Hall, Room 202. Read More

The School of Medicine Basic Sciences Dean’s Lecture featured renowned immunologist, virologist, and alumnus Dr. Barney S. Graham. In his talk, “Reflections on Pandemics and the Future of Medicine,” Graham discussed his early research experiences leading up to his seminal work on the first experimental COVID-19 vaccines, along with his observations on the pandemic and hopes for the future of medicine. Read More

Psychologists and psychiatrists have sometimes struggled to keep up with the multiplying mental health challenges posed by the pandemic and other recent events, but through studies and interventions, Vanderbilt faculty members are providing new insights into the crisis—as well as the best evidence-based solutions for overcoming it. Read More

A Vanderbilt study finds that Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective in children 6 months to 5 years of age. Read More

Stacey M. Floyd-Thomas, E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor and associate professor of ethics and society, has edited and published Religion, Race, and COVID-19: Confronting White Supremacy in the Pandemic, an anthology exploring the countless challenges, racially charged acts, setbacks, triumphs and newfound hope through the eyes of individuals living through one of the most pressing, perplexing social crises in recent memory—the global COVID-19 pandemic.  Read More