A natural signaling molecule that activates cannabinoid receptors in the brain plays a critical role in stress-resilience — the ability to adapt to repeated and acute exposures to traumatic stress, according to researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Despite dramatic recent advances in treatment, colorectal cancer killed more than 49,000 Americans last year, according to the National Cancer Institute, making it the second most lethal malignancy after cancers of the lung and bronchus.

Elaine Fuchs, Ph.D., recipient of the 2016 Vanderbilt Prize in Biomedical Science and a pioneer in the field of reverse genetics, will deliver her Vanderbilt Prize lecture as part of the Flexner Discovery Lecture series on Thursday, March 30.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) have mapped the conformational changes that occur in a protein “notorious” for pumping chemotherapeutic drugs out of cancer cells and blocking medications from reaching the central nervous system.

Treatment in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) saves millions of infants born prematurely every year. But treatment is not without cost. Painful procedures such as needle pricks can impact early brain development.

Ajit Varki, M.D., a pioneer in the field of molecular glycobiology at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), will deliver the next Flexner Discovery Lecture on Thursday, March 23.