Research

Ege T. Kavalali, PhD, professor and acting chair of the Department of Pharmacology in the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, has been elected a recipient of a prestigious Humboldt Research Award by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany. Read More

The Division of TennCare will partner with VUMC as part of the MOM program focusing on 26 rural and urban counties to improve the outcomes for women with opioid use disorder and their infants. Read More

A newly identified protein interaction that affects cell cycle regulation may be an attractive target for cancer therapy. Read More

To study the dynamics of structural proteins in the heart, Vanderbilt investigators generated a cellular tool they expect will be useful for screening drugs that affect heart muscle contraction. Read More

Vanderbilt mechanical engineers took home top awards at the Dec. 6 meeting of the Materials Research Society in Boston, Massachusetts. Mechanical engineering professor Kelsey Hatzell received the Materials Research Society Nelson “Buck” Robinson Science and Technology Award for Renewable Energy. Hatzell was selected from more than 25 candidates for her research contributions to renewable energy.... Read More

John Gore, director of the Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science, has been appointed to a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine standing committee to advise the Department of State on unexplained health effects on U.S. government employees and their families at overseas embassies. 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

Vanderbilt neurologists have identified a protein modification that could be targeted to reduce neuronal excitability in epilepsy. Read More

A drug used to treat and prevent HIV/AIDS is showing promise as a potential therapy for Alzheimer’s disease. 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

A computational method that uses hospital billing codes and electronic health records can identify genetic disease cases before clinical teams do. Read More

Poorly functioning AMPARs have been linked to a wide range of neurological and psychiatric disorders including seizures, Alzheimer’s disease, major depression and autism spectrum disorder. Understanding how AMPARs are formed and operate is essential for the rational design of pharmacological compounds that, by tuning AMPAR activity up or down, could improve treatment of these conditions. Read More

The identification of a protein important for insulin synthesis may hold clues for understanding the pathogenesis of diabetes. Read More

To explore how fear becomes entrenched, VUMC researchers traveled down the precise neuronal pathways in the brains of mice that trigger fear responses, and which normally extinguish the behaviors once the danger has passed. Read More

Researchers at VUMC have taken a major step that could ultimately facilitate development of a new class of antidepressants which may relieve symptoms more rapidly and effectively and with fewer side effects than current medications. Read More

Obesity and two post-operative complications linked with it have associated genetic variants in common, suggesting that obesity may be the culprit. Read More

Faculty have been named to a new subcommittee formed by the Vanderbilt University Research Council to provide governance for the GlobalVU initiative. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers have uncovered another piece in the puzzle of how cells divide — a process that goes awry in cancer cells. Read More

A new continuum robot designed by Vanderbilt engineers achieves multiscale motion and may open up a huge world of previously impossible complex microsurgeries. Read More

Structural details of a protein that is essential to normal brain function could improve treatments for epilepsy and other seizure disorders. Read More