NIAID

January 25, 2017

Flu vaccine response in older adults

High dose flu vaccine boosts the immune response in older adults by increasing activation of certain immune cells.

By Leigh MacMillan
January 19, 2017

Study to track diabetes drug’s ability to also treat asthma

Investigators in the Division of Allergy, Pulmonary, and Critical Care Medicine and the Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolism recently received a $1.25 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

By VUMC News and Communications
December 1, 2016

Study tests shorter antibiotic course in children

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) are leading a multicenter clinical trial to evaluate whether a shorter course of antibiotics — five days instead of 10 — is effective at treating community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in children who show improvement after the first few days of taking antibiotics.

By Christina Echegaray
tug-of-rope pair
November 3, 2016

VUMC investigators find pathogens work together to infect host

Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus — two pathogens that frequently co-infect the lungs of patients with cystic fibrosis — appear to cooperate with each other, Vanderbilt investigators have discovered. When pseudomonas is starved for metal by the host, it shuts down the production of factors that would normally kill staph, promoting a co-infection.

By Leigh MacMillan
October 20, 2016

Preparing for a return of pox

To prepare for the potential of a smallpox return, Vanderbilt researchers are isolating and studying naturally occurring antibodies from the blood of previously infected or immunized people.

By Bill Snyder
knight with sword and shield
October 20, 2016

Research sheds light on how RSV wards off potential vaccines

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the major cause of life-threatening viral pneumonia in infants worldwide, yet despite repeated efforts, scientists have been unable to develop an effective vaccine against it.

By Bill Snyder
September 28, 2016

Targeting norovirus “noxiousness”

New discoveries will guide efforts to develop vaccines or antiviral agents for norovirus, the most common cause of infectious diarrhea.
By Bill Snyder
September 26, 2016

Study shows excess dietary zinc worsens C. diff infection

Too much dietary zinc increases susceptibility to infection by Clostridium difficile — “C. diff” — the most common cause of hospital-acquired infections.
By Leigh MacMillan
August 15, 2016

In search of new asthma therapies

A peptide molecule relaxes airway smooth muscle and may be a potential therapeutic for asthma that has become resistant to standard therapies.
By Leigh MacMillan
July 21, 2016

Team to study RSV’s role in asthma formation

Investigators in the Division of Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine recently received a $4.5 million Asthma and Allergic Diseases Cooperative Research Center (AADCRC) grant from the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
By VUMC News and Communications
June 27, 2016

The odds of asthma

A number of factors during infancy increase the risk that a child will later develop asthma.
By Paul Govern
June 6, 2016

Pulmonary fibrosis culprits

New findings identify isoketal-modified proteins as a previously unrecognized feature of pulmonary fibrosis and as a potential therapeutic target for this disease.
By Leigh MacMillan
April 20, 2016

How strep grabs on to platelets

New structural details of the binding of the bacterium Streptococcus sanguinis to platelets may offer new therapeutics for life-threatening cardiovascular infections.
By VUMC News and Communications