Features

Shade Tree Clinic began with an undaunted duo

How zebrafish — and many hands — solve the ‘jigsaw puzzles’ of human disease

Ela Knapik, MD, professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, has devoted her career to collaborating with others to solve the “jigsaw puzzles” of disease. Her lab is known internationally for its use of modern genome-editing techniques in a powerful animal model — zebrafish.

By Bill Snyder

October 8, 2025

Pediatric solid organ transplant program transforms young lives

Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt is among an elite group of pediatric hospitals offering heart, liver, kidney, pancreas, lung and dual organ transplants. The pediatric solid organ program is a part of the Vanderbilt Transplant Center (VTC) one of the nation’s busiest transplant centers.