Nature

In a groundbreaking study published recently in the journal Nature, researchers at Vanderbilt University and Vanderbilt Health have created the first growth charts for white matter in the brain over a human lifetime. The work brings together nearly two decades of Vanderbilt research collaborations, the university’s extensive MRI data collections, and an advanced AI-enabled computing platform. Read More

Vanderbilt University’s Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries have announced an open access agreement with Springer Nature, a global leader in research publishing. The agreement, the first of its kind in North America, enables Vanderbilt-affiliated authors to maximize the dissemination and citations of their research without incurring article processing charges when publishing in Nature, the world’s leading multidisciplinary science journal, and 38 other Nature hybrid journals that are part of the publisher’s portfolio. Read More

Right now, these native “flowers” are blooming in Nashville—at least, until they melt, which is typically right after they form. Frost flowers are winter ephemerals. They happen when air temperature drops below freezing and warm groundwater rises to extrude itself through the conduit of a real flower stem, especially if that stem is a white crownbeard (Verbesina virginica). “Ice segregation” is the process at work. Water and vapor freeze on contact with air, and waves from within push older crystals forward and out. Read More

The study reported in the journal Nature provides a mechanistic explanation for the “obesity paradox” — that obesity can contribute to cancer progression but also improve response to immunotherapy. Read More

An analysis of genomic data from nearly 250,000 participants in the National Institutes of Health’s All of Us Research Program has identified more than 275 million previously unreported genetic variations, nearly 4 million of which have potential health consequences. Read More

A front-end lens, or meta-imager, created at Vanderbilt University can potentially replace traditional imaging optics in machine-vision applications, producing images at higher speed and using less power. Read More

An international coalition of biomedical researchers co-led by Vanderbilt's Alexander Bick, MD, PhD, has determined a new way to measure the growth rate of precancerous clones of blood stem cells that one day could help doctors lower their patients’ risk of blood cancer. Read More

Researchers from from Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center have identified the mechanism for the deadly heart inflammation myocarditis. Read More

Joshua Caldwell, Flowers Family Chancellor’s Faculty Fellow in Engineering and associate professor of mechanical engineering, and Joseph Matson, a graduate student in Caldwell’s lab, have contributed to an international study that has discovered a new type of light-matter coupling. The work has long-term implications for how optical components can be even further miniaturized, a discovery... Read More

A massive worldwide collaboration including researchers from Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) has identified several genetic factors associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe COVID-19 illness. Read More

Five monoclonal antibody “cocktails,” including one developed at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), are protective in animal studies against several variant strains of COVID-19, according to a report this week in the journal Nature. Read More

Tumors consume glucose at high rates, but a team of Vanderbilt researchers has discovered that cancer cells themselves are not the culprit, upending models of cancer metabolism that have been developed and refined over the last 100 years. Read More

AstraZeneca is advancing into phase 3 clinical trials with an investigational COVID-19 therapy of two long-acting antibodies discovered by Vanderbilt University Medical Center and optimized by AstraZeneca. Read More

A study published June 17 in Nature offers clues as to why blocking inhibitory receptors on tumor-infiltrating T cells may not always work Read More

Targeting the protein that mosquito-borne viruses use to enter cells could be a strategy for preventing infection by multiple emerging viruses. Read More

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) have mapped the conformational changes that occur in a protein “notorious” for pumping chemotherapeutic drugs out of cancer cells and blocking medications from reaching the central nervous system. Read More

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have isolated a human monoclonal antibody that in a mouse model “markedly reduced” infection by the Zika virus. Read More

Hypoxia (lack of enough oxygen) is bad for the body as a whole, but in the neighborhood where infection-fighting antibodies arise, may be important for keeping proper order. Read More

A Vanderbilt University-led research team has discovered a molecular “rheostat” in the brain’s appetite control center that may provide new insights into obesity, which is at epidemic levels in this country. Read More

Simple heat treatments may give the frog immune system a boost and help it fight off a deadly fungal pathogen, according to a new study published July 10 in the journal Nature. Read More