A nationwide research group headed by Vanderbilt University’s David Robertson, M.D., has received another round of funding from the federal government to continue studies of rare neurodegenerative diseases and disorders affecting blood pressure.

Vanderbilt’s biobank, BioVU, has begun to collect and store plasma, the liquid part of blood, to aid studies of diseases ranging from heart failure and hypertension to breast cancer.

Vanderbilt University is part of a national effort to improve diabetes treatment by developing strategies for proliferating, regenerating and improving the function of insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreatic islets.

Two seniors in the School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt (SSMV) are semifinalists in the 2014 Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology for U.S. high school students, and one of them, Zaixing “Able” Shi, is Tennessee’s only regional finalist.