featured research
What fourth-down decisions in pro football tell us about deadlines and risky decision making
Feb. 2, 2011—Try asking any Monday morning quarterback about blown fourth-down play calls in the NFL and you are guaranteed passionate opinions. In most fourth-down plays, an NFL team will punt or try for a field goal. But, occasionally, teams decide to do something that is viewed as risky – attempt a fourth-down conversion or “go for...
Going underground in search of new drugs
Feb. 1, 2011—Every few months, chemist Brian Bachmann sheds his white lab coat, collects his flashlight, helmet, surgical gloves and knotted rope, puts on old clothes and hiking boots and heads to a nearby cave. Bachmann, an assistant professor of chemistry at Vanderbilt, has combined his industrial experience in natural products drug discovery with his undergraduate hobby...
Vanderbilt joins consortium to discover and map all Alzheimer’s genes
Feb. 1, 2011—Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and across the globe, announced today a multi-national collaboration to discover and map all genes relating to Alzheimer’s disease through the formation of the International Genomics of Alzheimer’s Project (IGAP). Alzheimer’s disease, a progressive, neurodegenerative disorder that is fatal, has no cure and available drugs only marginally affect disease...
Tuning graphene film so it sheds water
Feb. 1, 2011—Windshields that shed water so effectively that they don’t need wipers. Ship hulls so slippery that they glide through the water more efficiently than ordinary hulls. These are some of the potential applications for graphene, one of the hottest new materials in the field of nanotechnology, raised by the research of James Dickerson, assistant professor...
Breast cancer patients with strong social network live longer
Jan. 31, 2011—Breast cancer patients who have a strong social support system in the first year after diagnosis are less likely to die or have a recurrence of cancer, according to new research from Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center and the Shanghai Institute of Preventive Medicine. The study, led by first author Meira Epplein, assistant professor of medicine, was...
Schizophrenics better at some memory tasks
Jan. 28, 2011—Individuals with schizophrenia are better at some cognitive tasks than average people, new research from Vanderbilt University indicates. The findings open the door for potential new therapies for these individuals. “We found a pocket of spared or enhanced ability in patients with schizophrenia when almost everything else is impaired,” Vanderbilt psychologist Sohee Park, co-author of...
Kids who think Dad works too much more likely to bully
Jan. 27, 2011—Do your children think you work too much and don’t spend enough time with them? If so, their perception could lead to bullying behavior, according to research by Vanderbilt University sociologist Andre Christie-Mizell. “Our behavior is driven by our perception of our world, so if children feel they are not getting enough time and attention...
Vanderbilt’s role in largest digital sky image
Jan. 13, 2011—The Sloan Digital Sky Survey-III collaboration, which includes Vanderbilt University, has resulted in a picture of the sky so big that it would take 500,000 high-definition TVs to view it at full resolution. The color image contains more than a trillion pixels and covers about one-third of the entire sky.
Scripps Research and Vanderbilt launch joint institute to advance science at interface of chemistry and medicine
Jan. 13, 2011—The Scripps Research Institute and Vanderbilt University have formed a partnership to advance science at the interface of chemistry and medicine, the institutions announced today. The Human Chemical Sciences Institute will encompass research and training activities at Scripps Research on its San Diego, California, and Jupiter, Florida, campuses, and at the Vanderbilt Institute for Chemical...
Brain imaging predicts future reading progress in children with dyslexia
Dec. 20, 2010—Brain scans of adolescents with dyslexia can be used to predict the future improvement of their reading skills with an accuracy rate of up to 90 percent, new research indicates. Advanced analyses of the brain activity images are significantly more accurate in driving predictions than standardized reading tests or any other measures of children’s behavior....
Lessons learned from urban cultural tax plans focus of Vanderbilt study
Dec. 7, 2010—Proponents of creating a cultural tax district for Nashville would need to identify community-specific goals that address voters’ shared values and ideals, according to a report prepared by the Vanderbilt Center for Nashville Studies. Merely stating a need for greater funding for the arts is not enough for many voters to justify an increase in...
Babies’ biological clocks dramatically affected by birth light cycle
Dec. 6, 2010—The season in which babies are born can have a dramatic and persistent effect on how their biological clocks function. That is the conclusion of a new study published online on Dec. 5 by the journal Nature Neuroscience. The experiment provides the first evidence for seasonal imprinting of biological clocks in mammals and was conducted...