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Infectious diseases pose a significant global health challenge, accounting for a substantial proportion of deaths worldwide, according to recent data from the World Health Organization. Vanderbilt’s Life Science Showcase: Advancing Innovation in Infectious Diseases held on July 18 emphasized the vital importance of advancing research and innovation to combat these persistent threats. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers have discovered that beneficial bacteria in the small intestines produce a compound that protects against obesity. Read More

Pasteurization of breast milk affects the concentration of osteopontin, a bioactive protein with roles in intestinal, immunological and brain development — suggesting that osteopontin supplementation should be considered when donor milk is provided to preterm infants. Read More

Vanderbilt research discovers that iron storage “spheres” inside the bacterium C. diff — the leading cause of hospital-acquired infections — are important for infection in an animal model and could offer new targets for antibacterial drugs. Read More

Undergraduate artists, biomedical researchers join forces to convey the power and promise of Vanderbilt research labs through visual art on display at the Fine Arts Gallery and throughout biomedical research spaces on campus through Nov. 17. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers detail the landscape of RNA editing — a form of RNA modification — in primary effusion lymphoma cells during Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus infection and identify an edited viral microRNA that is critical for infection. Read More

Vanderbilt's Wenhan Zhu, PhD, has received a three-year award from the G. Harold and Leila Y. Mathers Foundation to support his research that aims to answer a fundamental question about bacterial physiology and engineer probiotics to improve gut inflammatory diseases. 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

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

A team led by Vanderbilt researchers has described and characterized the first zinc metallochaperone: a protein that puts zinc into other “client” proteins. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers are studying a bacterial pathogen that can survive on hospital surfaces — without water — for months, an ability that has helped it become a leading cause of hospital-acquired infections. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers have identified a critical regulatory factor in the bacterium that causes the disease anthrax and has been used as a biological weapon. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers help answer the question of why patients with autoimmune diseases like lupus are more susceptible to bacterial infections: their neutrophils have impaired antibacterial activity. Read More

H. pylori infection — a strong risk factor for stomach cancer — changes the composition of stomach lipids, which could offer new biomarkers for detecting premalignant changes, Vanderbilt researchers discovered. Read More

The invading pathogen Salmonella, a common cause of food poisoning, can change its metabolism to overcome host resistance to its colonization. Read More

The Vanderbilt Microbiome Initiative has been renamed the Vanderbilt Microbiome Innovation Center. It will offer a hub of resources for education, outreach and research around the microbiome—the community of microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi and viruses that are crucial to sustaining life ecosystems. Read More

Steven Townsend, associate professor of chemistry, and Fang Yan, research professor of pediatrics and cell and development biology, have discovered how a sugar in human breast milk mitigates damage to the small intestines caused by chemotherapy-induced mucositis. Read More

The summer 2021 Artist in Residence program applications are now open to all undergraduate students nationwide. Applications submitted online will be accepted until April 2. The residency is facilitated by the Vanderbilt Institute for Infection, Immunology and Inflammation. Read More

The emergence of pathogenic skin fungi that cause the disease chytridiomycosis is contributing to the global loss of amphibian populations.  Read More