Research

Advances in neuroimaging over the past 25 years have ushered in nothing short of a revolution in technology for understanding the human brain. These new technologies have opened broad vistas for scientists, from being able to pinpoint regions of the brain responsible for various functions and behaviors to targeting new treatments for illnesses ranging from... Read More

As a child, Jenna Dombroski was at her grandfather’s bedside when cancer took his life. A scientist, he was her inspiration. Years later, the Vanderbilt University Ph.D. student and National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow is honoring him by leading the development of what appears to be a promising treatment for breast cancer metastasis, and... Read More

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have found that the change in a single letter of the genetic code promotes, in a mouse model, the development of inflammation, high blood pressure and resulting kidney damage. Read More

Audrey Bowden, Dorothy J. Wingfield Phillips Chancellor’s Faculty Fellow and associate professor of biomedical and electrical engineering, has won a grant from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering to develop a novel noninvasive smartphone-integrated device to provide accurate, point-of-care detection of jaundice in newborns of all skin tones. Audrey Bowden Newborns have immature... Read More

Twelve exceptional undergraduates have benefited from the addition of new workshops to a 10-week Summer Fellows program that gives students first-hand experience in research laboratories and provides financial support. The Vanderbilt Institute for Surgery and Engineering’s Summer Fellows program expanded this year with the addition of two new workshops: Technical Communication in Research and Refining... Read More

Vanderbilt reseach shows that resources for lung cancer screening programs increased the number of veterans screened. Read More

Vanderbilt University has been selected to present in two venues at the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference, commonly referred to as COP27, Nov. 15 at Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt. Vanderbilt research assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering and Vanderbilt Climate Change Initiative Director Leah Dundon’s proposal on Vanderbilt’s ongoing research in marine shipping... Read More

Sankaran Mahadevan, John R. Murray Sr. Professor of Engineering and civil and environmental engineering professor, is the winner of the 2022 IASSAR Distinguished Research Award. The award is presented every four years to two eminent senior researchers by the International Association on Structural Safety and Reliability at its quadrennial meeting. IASSAR promotes the study, research... Read More

Vanderbilt researchers are studying precancerous lesions and early cancers in the colon, with the goal of developing new ways to prevent colorectal cancer, the nation’s second leading cancer killer. Read More

Neuroblastoma is one of the most common—and lethal—forms of childhood cancer, accounting for 15 percent of pediatric cancer deaths each year. (Despite the name, neuroblastoma is not a form of brain cancer; it typically consists of tumors found in the abdomen, chest, neck, pelvis and bones.) Currently, children with neuroblastoma are treated with aggressive forms... Read More

Neuroblastoma is one of the most common—and lethal—forms of childhood cancer, accounting for 15 percent of pediatric cancer deaths each year. (Despite the name, neuroblastoma is not a form of brain cancer; it typically consists of tumors found in the abdomen, chest, neck, pelvis and bones.) Currently, children with neuroblastoma are treated with aggressive forms... Read More

A new model suggests that a protein involved in the generation of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) works differently than previously thought. Read More

As the population of older adults continues to boom across the U.S., Vanderbilt researcher Nilanjan Sarkar is partnering with Lorraine Mion of the Ohio State University and two Middle Tennessee long-term care (LTC) facilities to investigate how augmented reality technologies can ease loneliness among residents. Sarkar, the David K. Wilson Professor of Engineering and a... Read More

John Wilson, associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Vanderbilt University, has received a $3 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to develop technology that seeks to boost a person’s immune system to better fight cancer. Wilson is the Principal Investigator of the five-year grant. He specializes in the study of cancer immunotherapy... Read More

New Vanderbilt research could inform therapeutic strategies for enhancing thymic function when desired — such as during aging, recovery from radiation therapy or chemotherapy, or other conditions that reduce T cell output. Read More

A new study by Vanderbilt researchers demonstrates the ability to initiate chemical reactions by cooling materials instead of heating them— a counterintuitive process that could open new vistas for applications ranging from monitoring shipping conditions to developing smart clothing that guards against dangerously low temperatures. The paper, published in August by the journal RSC Advances,... Read More

Gastrointestinal inflammation, such as occurs in inflammatory bowel disease, triggers the expansion of a population of “bone-eating” cells, leading to bone loss. Read More

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have discovered why the uropathogenic bacterium E. coli, the leading cause of urinary tract infections, is so tenacious; their findings could lead to new ways to prevent recurrent UTIs. Read More

Robert Webster, Richard A. Schroeder Professor of Mechanical Engineering and associate professor of medicine and urology at Vanderbilt University, is part of a collaborative team that has received a more than $2.3 million grant to further develop technology that seeks to prevent patients from having invasive colectomies by using steerable robot-like instruments. Under his second startup... Read More

A professor and undergraduate student in Vanderbilt University’s School of Engineering are both recipients of esteemed 2022-2023 Fulbright awards that allow scholars to teach and conduct research abroad. Ravindra Duddu is an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and Kristi Maisha is a civil engineering major. Duddu will use his Fulbright-Kalam Climate Fellowship to... Read More