Pathology Microbiology And Immunology

A multidisciplinary team of investigators at Vanderbilt University and Vanderbilt University Medical Center has received a program project grant from the National Cancer Institute to explore extracellular RNA in colorectal cancer. Read More

Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the global biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca have joined forces to identify candidates for antibody-based treatments that could protect people exposed to the 2019 novel coronavirus disease, COVID-19. Read More

The Genetics Society of America has recognized Seth Bordenstein, an evolutionary geneticist and microbiologist at Vanderbilt, for an initiative that brings real-world scientific research into middle school, high school and college biology classes. Read More

The identification of novel protein interactions and sites of modification in proteins involved in mRNA translation adds to understanding of a process that is an important therapeutic target. Read More

Timothy Cover and colleagues report new insights into the sources of energy used by a bacterial “machine” linked to the pathogenesis of stomach cancer. Read More

The increasingly antibiotic-resistant bacterium Acinetobacter baumannii requires zinc to cause infection, and Vanderbilt researchers have identified the zinc uptake system it uses. Read More

D. Borden Lacy and colleagues used cryo-electron microscopy to define the structure of a C. diff toxin, providing a framework for the design of novel therapeutics. Read More

VUMC scientists are redoubling their efforts to help people fight off bird flu. Their focus is H7N9, one of the most dangerous of the influenza viruses that have been transmitted from birds to humans. Read More

Antibody discovery and vaccine development research may be on the verge of rapidly expanding with data that previously took decades to acquire, thanks to LIBRA-seq, a new tool developed by Vanderbilt University researchers and their colleagues. Read More

Eight Vanderbilt University faculty members have been named 2019 fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers. Read More

An unprecedented view of bacterial products within infected tissues opens new opportunities to explore infection biology and devise novel therapeutic strategies. Read More

Immune cells that produce an anti-inflammatory factor are enriched in fat tissue around the heart and may be good targets to improve heart attack outcomes. Read More

Vanderbilt investigators have identified 13 previously unknown drug compounds that cause false positive screenings for amphetamines, buprenorphine (an opioid), cannabinoids and methadone. Read More

Heather Pua, MD, PhD, one of 60 investigators to receive the 2019 NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, will explore a novel type of cell signaling by RNAs in allergic airway inflammation. Read More

Vanderbilt investigators have now discovered that, in contrast to prevailing dogma, fibroblasts are not all alike; instead, they have distinctive functions following tissue injury. Read More

Understanding the roles of various immune cells that reside in the gut lining could shed light on inflammatory bowel diseases. Read More

Researchers at Vanderbilt University and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor have obtained the first high-resolution image of a molecular “machine” used by the insidious stomach bug Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) to inject a cancer-causing protein into the stomach lining. Read More

James Crowe Jr., MD, director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Center, will be honored today by the science and technology company Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany for his contributions to developing new therapeutics and vaccines against some of the world’s deadliest viruses. Read More

Scientists are testing a new way to fight chikungunya virus that involves injecting genetic material into the bodies of infected and at-risk individuals to trigger rapid production of potent, virus-neutralizing antibodies. Read More

VUMC has joined an international effort to streamline and accelerate development of vaccines and other treatments against a growing worldwide surge of deadly and debilitating viral infections. Read More