Reporter

Star Wars characters visited with patients at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt on May 4, a date known among Star Wars enthusiasts as “May the 4th be with you” day.

The Middle Tennessee Chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) recently named Meg Rush, M.D., as the 2017 JDRF Living & Giving Honoree.

Sharing ideas is powerful. IdeaShare, a tool to share ideas among groups of people, and even vote about which ideas you like best, is coming to Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) beginning May 16.

If a career in medicine hadn’t worked out for Sam Chang, he might have been a politician. As an undergraduate at Princeton University, Chang chose to major in politics instead of common premed majors such as biology or chemistry. That way, he would have the opportunity to take a spectrum of liberal arts classes, from psychology to sociology to anthropology.

Ordinary cells can be transformed into cancer cells through epigenetics — changes to DNA that turn genes on or off. Those gene changes can protect cells or make them vulnerable to disease processes including cancer.

Nearly 400 members of the Canby Robinson Society and the Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) community joined together at Cheekwood Estate and Gardens recently for a reception celebrating the Medical Center’s shared commitment to healthy communities and to pioneer the future of health care.

A parking lot on 21st Avenue South, Lot 7, will close permanently Monday, May 15, as the university begins work on the new 29,947-square-foot addition to the School of Nursing. Lot 7 will be converted to a green space, with a drive that will allow for drop off at the entry of the renovated facility.