Jill Clendening

Marcela Brissova, PhD, and MD/PhD student John “Jack” Walker are part of the research team that developed a pseudoislet system for integrated studies of human islet function.
July 30, 2020

Pseudoislet system expected to advance pancreas and diabetes research

The multicellular, 3-D structure of human pancreatic islets — the areas of the pancreas containing hormone-producing or endocrine cells — has presented challenges to researchers as they study and manipulate these cells’ function, but Vanderbilt University Medical Center researchers have now developed a pseudoislet system that allows for much easier study of islet function.

By Jill Clendening
July 28, 2020

Study challenges idea that lower BMI shields smokers from fat-associated health risks

While some smokers might rationalize continuing to smoke because of the lower weight often associated with the habit, Vanderbilt University Medical Center investigators have determined that even with a lower body mass index (BMI), smokers have a higher risk of depositing fat in and around organs and tissues compared to those who never smoked.

By Jill Clendening
Nashville resident Bill Boyce’s successful recovery from COVID-19 included phone calls from VUMC nursing staff and his personal physician after his positive test, followed by a 28-day hospitalization and close monitoring by nursing staff after he returned home.
July 9, 2020

Coordinated care network ensures COVID-positive patient makes recovery

On March 27, Nashville resident Bill Boyce, 73, earned the unwelcome distinction of becoming the first patient intubated on Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s dedicated COVID-19 unit.

By Jill Clendening
June 4, 2020

Bereavement calls helping to aid grieving families

There has been nothing normal about the COVID-19 pandemic, and grieving the loss of a life at a time when families have been unable to gather beside a bedside to say goodbye, or to even hold a traditional funeral, has been one of the worst consequences of this health crisis’s uncharted territory.

By Jill Clendening
David Shaffer, MD, and Rachel Forbes, MD
May 27, 2020

Forbes named new chief of Division of Kidney and Pancreas Transplantation

Rachel Forbes, MD, MBA, associate professor of Surgery, has been appointed chief of the Division of Kidney and Pancreas Transplantation in the Department of Surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, effective June 1.

By Jill Clendening
Howard Price’s decades-old notebook of diagnostic recipes came in handy when VUMC ran short of a component crucial to COVID-19 testing efforts.
April 30, 2020

Price’s old laboratory recipe book proves to be invaluable

Howard Price has a decades-old green notebook he keeps in his office at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and when a shortage of a critical laboratory supply nearly brought testing for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, to a halt at the Medical Center, the notebook’s contents quickly became invaluable.

By Jill Clendening