Department of Cell and Developmental Biology Archives
Novel genetic study sheds new light on risk of heart attack
Oct. 11, 2018—Loss of a protein that regulates mitochondrial function can greatly increase the risk of a heart attack, report Eric Gamazon, Sandra Zinkel and graduate students Christie Salisbury-Ruf and Clinton Bertram in new research.
Cancer Moonshot award to help map tumor progression
Sep. 27, 2018—A trans-institutional team of researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Vanderbilt University has received an $11 million Cancer Moonshot grant to build a single-cell resolution atlas to map out the routes that benign colonic polyps take to progress to colorectal cancer, the third most common cancer among both men and women in the United States.
How microvilli form
Sep. 21, 2018—Research led by Matthew Tyska gives new insight into the formation of the lining of the gut that helps us absorb nutrients and guard against illness.
Repairs in the basement membrane
Aug. 9, 2018—New research by Andrea Page-McCaw shows that a membrane that wraps around most animal tissues can heal within 24 hours, but does leave a scar.
SMAD4 clue to colon cancer
Jul. 5, 2018—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.
Looking beyond the ‘magic bullet’ approach to drug discovery
May. 1, 2018—Vanderbilt scientists have developed a new process that can rapidly and inexpensively identify personalized cancer drugs derived from nature.
Toxin floats on lipid rafts
Apr. 23, 2018—The bacterium H. pylori is a leading cause of stomach cancer, and Vanderbilt researchers are studying how one of its toxins gets into cells.
Department of Cell and Developmental Biology hosts Cell Dynamics Symposium May 24–25
Apr. 20, 2018—The Department of Cell and Developmental Biology within the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine hosts its second Cell Dynamics Symposium May 24–25 in Wilson Hall.
MIT’s Orr-Weaver wraps up spring Discovery Lecture series April 26
Apr. 19, 2018—The spring Flexner Discovery Lecture series wraps up on Thursday, April 26, with a presentation by Terry Orr-Weaver, PhD, professor of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Study tracks protein’s role in stem cell function
Mar. 22, 2018—MCL-1 is a member of the BCL-2 family of proteins important for blocking apoptosis, or programmed cell death. Many types of cancer cells escape the body’s effort to kill them by overexpressing MCL-1.
Structure of a stem cell niche
Feb. 28, 2018—Understanding the specialized environment where stem cells reside is important for developing stem-cell based regenerative therapies.
Cell skeleton and the brush border
Jan. 31, 2018—Vanderbilt researchers have discovered a role for microtubules — part of the cellular “skeleton” — in organizing the unique sidedness of the epithelial cells that line organs like the intestines.