Understanding how mutations affect the structure and function of inhibitory neurotransmitter receptors will shed light on the mechanisms underlying some types of epilepsy.

Vanderbilt researchers have shown that an injectable material improves wound healing and may be useful for large skin wounds such as those in patients with diabetes.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have isolated a human monoclonal antibody that in a mouse model “markedly reduced” infection by the Zika virus.

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.

Vanderbilt researchers have discovered a link between Helicobacter pylori infection, inflammation and gastric cancer that could suggest new anti-cancer therapies.

Specific interactions between inflammatory cells and epithelial cells contribute to lung fibrosis, according to a study published last week in JCI Insight fromVanderbilt’s Lisa Young, M.D., associate professor of Pediatrics and Medicine and Cell and Developmental Biology, and colleagues.

A team of Vanderbilt scientists have genetically modified luciferase, the enzyme that produces bioluminescence, so that it acts as an optical sensor that records activity in brain cells.