Pharmacology

Experts from the Institute for Scientific Information identified 13 faculty at Vanderbilt University and Vanderbilt University Medical Center as among the top one percent of cited researchers worldwide. Read More

Warren Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery lead researchers discover a therapy that may treat memory loss and slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. Read More

Prothena and the Warren Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery have entered into a collaborative research agreement to develop new small molecule therapeutics for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease in individuals with Down syndrome. Read More

Body-made cannabinoids that fine tune hunger signals in the brain have been mapped, with implications for helping those with deadly feeding-related illnesses Read More

Melanoma is the fifth most-common type of cancer in the U.S., and according to the American Cancer Society, about half of patients with malignant melanoma have mutations of the BRAF gene. Identification of potential tumor biomarkers such as SOX10 can help physicians better predict outcomes for their patients.  Read More

Ege Kavalali and Heidi Hamm collaborated to discover a signaling pathway for how spontaneous release of neurotransmitters can be selectively regulated without disrupting evoked action potentials. Read More

A team of Vanderbilt investigators has discovered that blocking a certain signaling pathway boosts antitumor immunity and reduces tumor growth and metastasis in models of breast cancer and melanoma. Read More

Behavioral and systems neuropharmacologist Jerri Rook is recognized by the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation with the Goodes Prize to continue her work in Alzheimer’s disease research. Read More

The VBI recently marked its 20th anniversary, a span that has seen the institute’s wide-ranging missions—including administering the university’s Neuroscience Graduate Program, as well as postdoctoral training and community outreach—steadily coalesce under a single umbrella. Read More

Written by Heidi Hall Alpacas aren’t the typical animals that drivers spot as they wind their way through rural Tennessee, but there’s a happy herd of them outside Waverly, where they eat the finest pellets, walk up and down a scenic hill and potentially save lives. They’re owned by… Read More

Sean Davies, Ph.D., associate professor of Pharmacology, was recognized as Pharmacology “Teacher of the Year” during the 25th Annual Joel G. Hardman Student-Invited Pharmacology Forum in Light Hall. Read More

J. David Sweatt, Ph.D., the Evelyn F. McKnight Endowed Chair of the Department of Neurobiology, director of the Civitan International Research Center, and director of the McKnight Brain Institute at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, has been named chair of Vanderbilt’s Department of Pharmacology. Read More

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have relieved symptoms in a mouse model of Rett syndrome with a drug-like compound that works like the dimmer switch in an electrical circuit. Read More

Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Ono Pharmaceutical Group, an international company based in Japan, have signed a drug discovery agreement. Read More

From left, Joshua Fessel, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of Medicine, Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, receives the 2015 Pharmacology Teaching Award from first-year Pharmacology graduate students Brian Bender, Blake Dieckmann and Stephanie Moore during last week’s 24th annual Joel G. Hardman Student-Invited Pharmacology Forum in Light Hall. (Photo… Read More

The Lustgarten Foundation has awarded a $1.5 million Research Investigator Grant to Stephen Fesik, Ph.D., professor of Biochemistry, Pharmacology and Chemistry, for research designed to discover new drugs for the treatment of pancreatic cancer. Read More

By shifting evolution into reverse to produce an expensive HIV drug out of a simple sugar, Vanderbilt chemist Brian Bachmann has shown that it may be possible to manufacture exotic and expensive synthetic drugs as easily as brewing beer. Read More

The mechanical forces generated by the rhythmic expansion and contraction of cardiac muscle cells play an active role in the initial stage of heart valve formation. Read More

Get ready to see stars– We’re taking you to space camp. See why mosquitoes bite you more than others Why you should get “Pinterested” in Vanderbilt! All this and more in this week’s VUCast, Vanderbilt’s online newscast. Watch now. [vucastblurb]… Read More

The strength of Vanderbilt biochemistry, especially in the area of metabolism and diabetes, has a lot to do with a brilliant husband-and-wife research team escaping the rise of Nazism in the early 1920s. Read More