Quinn Wells

Smoking study personalizes treatment

A simple blood test is allowing Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) researchers to determine which patients should be prescribed varenicline (Chantix) to stop smoking and which patients could do just as well, and avoid side effects, by using a nicotine patch.

Former heart patient inspired to create Discovery Science Fund

Two vastly different causes of heart failure, both of which can devastate a patient’s life, are being studied at Vanderbilt University Medical Center thanks, in part, to the generosity of a grateful patient whose own damaged heart was repaired at Vanderbilt more than five years ago.

BioVU to collect plasma in hunt for heart failure clues

Vanderbilt’s biobank, BioVU, has begun to collect and store plasma, the liquid part of blood, to aid studies of diseases ranging from heart failure and hypertension to breast cancer.