Jill Clendening

Beginning this week, the first of a series of six messages is being distributed to Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) employees highlighting ways to best fulfill the Vanderbilt Patient and Family Promise, a guiding principle that was created by patients and providers and adopted at VUMC in 2013.

George Washington University biomedical engineering student Sydney Bailes spent her summer carefully creating silicone layers of precise consistencies, and she hopes to spend winter break continuing work on the project that can one day help junior surgical trainees practice a critical skill — inserting surgical instruments for abdominal surgeries.

Investigators in the Vanderbilt Diabetes Research and Training Center (VDRTC) and collaborators at Stanford University have discovered new insights into the molecular mechanisms of cell proliferation in juvenile human pancreatic islets, information that could lead to new treatments for diabetes.

Nashville photographer Fred Dusel took a long draw on his ever-present trademark cigar as he studied a richly detailed carbon transfer print of wind-twisted driftwood on a barrier island beach in Georgia.

During the yearlong renovation of the Annette and Irwin Eskind Biomedical Library, all Vanderbilt University (VU) libraries are open to all Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and School of Nursing personnel.

Past research has proven that palliative care — specialized medical care focused on pain and symptom management as well as psychosocial interventions to improve quality of life — benefits patients with malignant diseases such as aggressive cancers. Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) health care providers are now studying whether palliative care can also benefit those with advanced liver disease, a diagnosis that precedes either a life-saving liver transplant or death.