Health and Medicine

close up of blood vessels
March 8, 2018

VICC study sheds new light on Von Hippel-Lindau syndrome

Investigators at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) and the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute (VTCRI) have revealed a gene mutation’s role in Von Hippel-Lindau syndrome, a genetically inherited disease which causes tumor growth in several organs.

By VUMC News and Communications
March 8, 2018

Lovly earns scholarship grant for lung cancer research

Christine Lovly, MD, PhD, assistant professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt, has received a $200,000 grant to support promising new research on lung cancer.

By VUMC News and Communications
March 6, 2018

Discovery by Vanderbilt-led group could lead to improved diabetes treatment

Vanderbilt investigators and colleagues around the country have made a major discovery that could lead to better ways to treat type 1 diabetes (T1D).

By Bill Snyder
little girl using inhaler
March 1, 2018

Study sheds light on how childhood RSV can lead to asthma

Infants who have higher amounts of the bacterium Lactobacillus present in their nose or upper part of the throat during an acute respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection are less likely to develop childhood wheezing later in life, a new Vanderbilt-led Center for Asthma Research study found.

By Christina Echegaray
March 1, 2018

Study reveals safety signal from genes that mimic drugs

Prospective mothers taking a new class of cholesterol-lowering drugs might incur higher risk of spina bifida in their future children, according to a study published in the journal Drug Safety by researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

By Paul Govern
elderly Asian mother and adult daughter
March 1, 2018

Older adults less likely to receive flu tests: study

An influenza diagnosis for people 65 and older is serious. Up to 85 percent of influenza-related deaths occur in older adults, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention reports.

By Kristin Smart
March 1, 2018

Graphene material strengthens nerve signaling in the brain

Less than 20 years after it was developed, a thin, resilient sheet of carbon atoms with remarkable properties known as graphene is transforming biomedical fields as far flung as tissue engineering, neuroprosthetics and drug discovery.
By Bill Snyder
February 28, 2018

Structure of a stem cell niche

Understanding the specialized environment where stem cells reside is important for developing stem-cell based regenerative therapies.
By Leigh MacMillan
February 26, 2018

Cannabis compound reduces seizures

Cannabidiol (CBD) oils reduced seizures in patients with difficult-to-treat epilepsy, Vanderbilt investigators have found.
By Leigh MacMillan
February 23, 2018

Hope for an RSV vaccine

Newly discovered features in an RSV protein may be useful for rational structure-based vaccine design.
By Bill Snyder
February 22, 2018

Mitochondrial mutations and disease

New findings suggest that oxidative stress damages mitochondrial DNA, and they link this damage to a disease state.
By Sanjay Mishra
February 22, 2018

Glaucoma study finds brain fights to preserve vision

A team of researchers, led by David Calkins, PhD, vice chair and director of Research at the Vanderbilt Eye Institute, has made a breakthrough discovery in the field of glaucoma showing new hopes for treatments to preserve vision.
By Jessica Pasley
February 14, 2018

A new target for neuroblastoma

Vanderbilt investigators have discovered that a sirtuin protein has oncogenic properties in neuroblastoma cells — and that blocking it reduces their growth and tumor-like characteristics.
By Leigh MacMillan