Drug Resistance

The Robert J. Kleberg, Jr. and Helen C. Kleberg Foundation has awarded a three-year grant to support research led by Houra Merrikh, PhD, professor of Biochemistry, and Ben Ho Park, MD, PhD, the Benjamin F. Byrd Jr. Professor of Oncology and director of Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, to create an anti-evolution drug to reduce the capacity of cancer cells to develop resistance. Read More

Doctors formerly had to extract the malaria parasite’s DNA first, virtually impossible to do in rural, low-resource areas. Read More

In new research, Hassane Mchaourab and colleagues have uncovered new insights into drug resistance that could lead to the development of new anti-cancer and antibacterial drugs. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers describe how certain tuberculosis treatments work and suggest these medications may overcome the threat of drug-resistant tuberculosis. Read More

Vanderbilt investigators have discovered that cancer treatment induces an “idling” state for cells, which could promote resistance to treatment. Read More

Vanderbilt investigators have discovered a novel non-genetic cause of resistance to the targeted anti-cancer therapy cetuximab. Their findings, reported this week in Nature Medicine, suggest a strategy for overcoming this resistance. Read More

Last month, Vanderbilt Clinical Laboratories introduced rapid molecular diagnostic testing to more quickly identify microorganisms that may be causing a patient’s bloodstream infection, along with the organism’s susceptibility to drugs. Read More

Vanderbilt investigators have discovered a way to overcome the resistance of some lung cancers to certain targeted therapies, which could lead to more effective treatments for lung cancer patients. Read More

Vanderbilt investigators are exploring the shape changes in a multidrug transporter to understand the mechanisms of antibacterial resistance. Read More

Combining inhibitors of the BMP signaling pathway with standard chemotherapy drugs may overcome drug resistance in ovarian cancer. Read More

Understanding factors, such as the receptor TLR9, that detect and defend against pathogens may lead to therapeutic approaches that promote an effective immune response to treat infections. Read More

New findings underscore the attractiveness of the HIV capsid – the structure that encloses the viral genome – as a therapeutic target. Read More

A combination of two types of therapy may be more effective in treating castration-resistant prostate cancer. Read More

New views of how transporters move molecules across cell membranes are key to understanding how these proteins impact tumor cell drug resistance and inherited diseases such as cystic fibrosis. Read More

Targeting the enzyme FosB could make antibiotic-resistant staph bacteria sensitive to the antibiotic fosfomycin. Read More

Vanderbilt University researchers and their Belgian colleagues have discovered the mechanism behind a multidrug transporter. Their findings, posted this week by Nature Chemical Biology, could lead to new treatments for multidrug resistant bacterial infections. Read More

Vanderbilt investigators have combined next-generation sequencing technologies and bioinformatics analyses to screen for genome-wide genetic mutations associated with drug resistance in a series of lung cancer cell lines. Read More

The nuclear receptor TR3 contributes to ovarian cancer cell death in response to platinum-based chemotherapy – and may be a good target for overcoming cell resistance to certain treatments. Read More

A protein associated with aggressive breast cancers may also influence resistance of lung cancer to targeted therapies. Read More

Since the days of Darwin, the “tree of life” has been the preeminent metaphor for the process of evolution, reflecting the gradual branching and changing of individual species. The discovery that a large cluster of genes appears to have jumped directly from one species of fungus to another, however,… Read More