NIH

Importin alpha 5, a member of a family of proteins that “shuttle” other proteins into the nucleus, is a potential new target for drugs to treat inflammatory diseases. Read More

Understanding the regulation of mutant EGF receptors commonly found in lung cancers could lead to new targeted therapies. Read More

Patients treated in intensive care units across the globe enter their medical care with no evidence of cognitive impairment but often leave with deficits similar to those seen in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) or mild Alzheimer’s disease (AD) that persist for at least a year, according to a Vanderbilt University Medical Center study published today in the New England Journal of Medicine. Read More

Neuroscientists have identified the location in the brain's visual cortex responsible for generating a common perceptual illusion: seeing shapes and surfaces that don't really exist when viewing a fragmented background. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers used existing genome-wide association study datasets to identify gene interactions that contribute to tooth decay. Read More

A panel of metabolites – small molecules that are part of metabolic processes – that are unique to macular degeneration will shed light on the disease and aid diagnosis. Read More

Molecular characterization of pre-cancerous changes in cells lining the stomach could point to lesions with a greater risk of progression to cancer. Read More

The Vanderbilt Vaccine Research Program has received a major contract from the National Institutes of Health to continue its work as one of the nation’s Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Units. Read More

Vanderbilt’s Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Unit (VTEU) is one of nine U.S. sites funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to test the effectiveness of a vaccine to protect against the H7N9 bird flu that emerged in China this spring. Read More

Researchers work to prevent possible bird flu pandemic How stars solve mysteries of the universe And conquering the video gaming industry Vandy style? All this and more in this week’s VUCast, Vanderbilt’s online newscast. Watch now. [vucastblurb]… Read More

Vanderbilt investigators used an in vivo screen in zebrafish to identify a potential new anti-cancer drug. Read More

New mass spectrometry imaging methods will enable studies of the distribution and identification of membrane proteins directly within tissues. Read More

Therapeutic nanoparticles may offer a powerful new way to image and treat cancer at the same time. 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

Lisa Young, M.D., associate professor of Pediatrics and Medicine and Cell Biology, has been awarded a five-year, $1.9 million National Institutes of Health grant to study what causes cellular dysfunction and pulmonary fibrosis in patients with Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome (HPS). Read More

A coronavirus protein is required for replication of the viral genome and may be a good treatment target for SARS and other diseases caused by coronaviruses. Read More

Ellen Fanning, Stevenson Professor of Biological Sciences and a professor of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, died on Sunday morning, Sept.1, after a lengthy battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). She was 67 years old. Read More

A new in vitro system will allow investigators to explore how immune system T cells develop specialized functions. Read More

A newly identified factor regulates blood vessel growth in colorectal tumors and could be a promising target for cancer therapies. Read More

Alkaline phosphatase enzymes appear to play roles in promoting pregnancy and in protecting the uterus from bacterial infection. Read More