Ken Lau, Ph.D., a new assistant professor in Cell and Developmental Biology, is out to determine the rules that lead to cells converting from one type to another, for example, when a healthy cell becomes a cancer cell.

Vanderbilt researchers have characterized the chemical structures of a series of DNA-protein “crosslinks” that may lead to better ways to avoid the cancer-causing potential of environmental chemicals and prevent some drug toxicities.

A multidisciplinary study conducted by the combined efforts of Vanderbilt University graduate students has led to the first evidence that abnormal messenger RNA export from the nucleus to the cytoplasm can cause human disease.

Inactivation by oxidative stress of specific transcription factors essential for pancreatic islet beta cell function is a key event in the development of type 2 diabetes, Vanderbilt University researchers and their colleagues have found.

Vanderbilt University’s Betsy Weiner, Ph.D., R.N., senior associate dean for Informatics in the School of Nursing, and Mark Frisse, M.D., MS, MBA, Accenture Professor and director of Regional Informatics, have been elected to the Institute of Medicine (IOM), the organization announced this week.

The 2013 Vanderbilt Prize in Biomedical Science has been awarded to Laurie Glimcher, M.D., Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean and professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City.