Department of Veterans Affairs

Tumors consume glucose at high rates, but a team of Vanderbilt researchers has discovered that cancer cells themselves are not the culprit, upending models of cancer metabolism that have been developed and refined over the last 100 years.

Vanderbilt researchers have developed a response score using genetic and clinical information to aid prescribing of the widely used pain medication codeine.

Triple-negative breast cancer cells engage in a “glutamine steal” — outcompeting T cells for the nutrient glutamine and impairing their ability to kill tumor cells, Vanderbilt researchers have discovered.

A novel hormone deficiency may exist in humans, Vanderbilt investigators have discovered. In an analysis of two decades worth of electronic health records, the researchers found that some patients have unexpectedly low levels of natriuretic peptide hormone in clinical situations that should cause high levels of the hormone.

Disrupting the action of glucagon — a pancreatic hormone that works to raise blood glucose — restores functional insulin-producing cells in mouse models of type 1 diabetes and may be a promising treatment strategy.

A selenium transport protein produced in the colon may be a novel biomarker for assessing disease severity and cancer risk in patients with inflammatory bowel disease.

Small RNAs — short stretches of genetic material — from microbes may be playing a role in rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases.