Eric Skaar

A new probe enables iron imaging in living animals, providing a unique tool for studying iron’s contributions to health and disease. Read More

Too much dietary manganese — an essential trace mineral found in leafy green vegetables, fruits and nuts — promotes infection of the heart by the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus (“staph”). Read More

On July 24 Vanderbilt scientist Eric Skaar, Ph.D., MPH, summarized his group’s latest paper in a tweet: “If S. aureus is going to drink our blood like a vampire, let's kill it with sunlight.” Read More

Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) is launching a new institute to coordinate initiatives among the rapidly evolving disciplines of infection biology, immunology and inflammatory diseases. Read More

Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus — two pathogens that frequently co-infect the lungs of patients with cystic fibrosis — appear to cooperate with each other, Vanderbilt investigators have discovered. When pseudomonas is starved for metal by the host, it shuts down the production of factors that would normally kill staph, promoting a co-infection. Read More

Too much dietary zinc increases susceptibility to infection by Clostridium difficile — “C. diff” — the most common cause of hospital-acquired infections. 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

Eric Skaar, Ph.D., MPH, the Ernest W. Goodpasture Professor of Pathology, has received a Scholar Award from the American Asthma Foundation (AAF). Read More

  Eric Skaar, Ph.D., MPH Eric Skaar, Ph.D., MPH, the Ernest W. Goodpasture Professor of Pathology, has been elected to fellowship in the American Academy of Microbiology. Skaar is one of seven current Vanderbilt faculty members who are AAM fellows. The 2,400-member academy is an… Read More

Bacterial Bullies |Nurses Staying in Workforce Longer |A Reassessment of Minority-Serving Colleges | Vice–Virtue Bundles Read More

Jim Cassat, M.D., Ph.D., a pediatric infectious disease specialist who joined the Vanderbilt faculty this summer, loves taking care of children with bone infections and doing research to understand the host-pathogen interactions during these invasive infections. Read More

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria can share resources to cause chronic infections, Vanderbilt investigators have discovered. The findings shed light on a long-standing question in infectious diseases and may inform new treatment strategies. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers have identified a new signaling system that anthrax bacteria uses to infect its host. Read More

Vanderbilt University has been awarded a Cooperative Agreement with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Army Research Office that is worth up to $16.5 million over five years. Read More

Osteomyelitis, a debilitating bone infection most frequently caused by Staphylococcus aureus (“staph”) bacteria, is particularly challenging to treat. Read More

Vanderbilt investigators report new insights to the workings of calprotectin, an immune system protein that “starves” bacterial pathogens of the metal nutrients they require. Read More

It may be possible to fight hospital-acquired pathogens like Acinetobacter baumannii by targeting the bacterium’s need for the nutrient metal zinc. Read More

A new 3-D view of the body’s response to infection — and the ability to identify proteins involved in the response — could point to novel biomarkers and therapeutic agents for infectious diseases. Read More

The antibiotics of the future could take a page from the immune system’s playbook – and “starve” bacteria of the nutrients they need. Read More