Vanderbilt researchers are comparing two types of weight-loss options to determine which is the most effective in helping obese patients reach a more ideal weight before undergoing kidney transplant surgery.

Microtubules are the “railroad tracks” essential for moving intracellular “freight” around in the cell. They’re also part of the spindle that pulls the two centrosomes apart during cell division.

For three years, 79-year-old Jerry Mock didn’t fully enjoy family vacations or gatherings with friends because his gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD) was so debilitating that eating even a bite of food after 1 p.m. guaranteed he’d have intense burning pain in his throat and chest that night.

Surgical oncologist Carmen Solórzano, M.D., senses she has a reputation for being tough on residents. It doesn’t bother her.

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.

Using bioinformatics approaches, Vanderbilt investigators have identified gene expression networks that are deregulated in mouse and human stomach cancers.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center cancer researcher James Goldenring, M.D., Ph.D., has received a two-year, $200,000 grant from the DeGregorio Family Foundation in Pleasantville, New York, to begin clinical trials of a potential approach for reversing precancerous stomach lesions.