Pathways activated by the epidermal growth factor receptor may be attractive targets to treat diabetic kidney disease, according to new findings from Vanderbilt investigators.

Alyssa Hasty and colleagues demonstrated that immune cells called macrophages act in fat tissue to store iron and prevent iron toxicity.

The research suggests that metformin should be further studied clinically for the prevention of liver cancer.

The new mapping approach, called suitability score mapping, should improve public health assessments and interventions for geographic-specific infections.

Activation of the signaling protein YAP may be a target for treating acute kidney injury, which affects up to 20 percent of hospitalized patients.

A drug used to treat diabetes may point to new therapies for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) bronchiolitis — inflammation and obstruction of the lungs’ small airways. A multi-disciplinary team of Vanderbilt investigators has demonstrated that liraglutide reduces the inflammatory response to RSV infection in a mouse model of the disease.

Loss of a gene that is part of the TGF-beta signaling pathway increased inflammation in the colon and was observed in half of human colitis-associated cancers.