American Heart Association

Defining the genes required for the function of insulin-producing beta cells is crucial for ongoing efforts to develop a cell-based therapy for diabetes.

Studies of the molecular complex that helps build specialized cellular surfaces could shed light on the mechanisms underlying a genetic deaf-blindness syndrome accompanied by intestinal disease.

The brains of children who are obese function differently from those of children of healthy weight, and exhibit an “imbalance” between food-seeking and food-avoiding behaviors, researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have found.

A team of Vanderbilt investigators developed a new method for rapidly generating heart muscle cells from stem cells.

Scott Baldwin, M.D., director of the Division of Pediatric Cardiology, recently was awarded the American Heart Association’s Helen B. Taussig Memorial Lecture, considered one of the most renowned invited lectures in the United States.

Microtubules — cellular “highways” that deliver cargo to the cell membrane for secretion — have a surprising role in pancreatic beta cells. Instead of facilitating glucose-stimulated insulin secretion, they limit it, a team of Vanderbilt investigators reported recently in Developmental Cell.

Understanding how macrophage immune cells accumulate in fat tissue and contribute to the pathology of obesity could lead to the development of novel therapeutics for metabolic disorders.