Reporter April 12 2019

April 11, 2019

Pathways of radiosensitization

Austin Kirschner and colleagues demonstrate how a hormone therapy for prostate cancer improves radiation’s tumor-killing power.

By Leigh MacMillan
April 11, 2019

The arrestin-GPCR connection

Understanding details of how arrestins deactivate signaling by G-protein coupled receptors is key to the design of new therapeutics aimed at these cellular “inboxes” that are targeted by up to half of all pharmaceuticals.

By Sanjay Mishra
April 11, 2019

Keeping bone in its place

Jonathan Schoenecker and colleagues have discovered a new mechanism for the formation of bone in soft tissues — a complication of severe injuries that causes pain and limits mobility.

By Anivarya Kumar
Research by Robert Coffey, MD, left, Dennis Jeppesen, PhD, and colleagues has revealed a new way cells shed DNA into the bloodstream.
April 11, 2019

Discovery aids search for cancer biomarkers

A report by researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center has shattered conventional wisdom about how cells, including cancer cells, shed DNA into the bloodstream: they don’t do it by packaging the genetic material in tiny vesicles called exosomes.

By Bill Snyder
April 11, 2019

Family’s journey an inspiration for organ donation awareness

Heroes come in all sizes, and Mikayla Honeycutt was a small but mighty one. Born with a congenital brain condition called Dandy-Walker Syndrome, she had too much fluid in her brain.

By Matt Batcheldor
bacteria microbiome
April 11, 2019

How bugs overcome host defenses

Vanderbilt researchers led by Eric Skaar are probing the mechanisms bacteria use when faced with nutrient starvation — a host defense strategy called “nutritional immunity.”

By Leigh MacMillan
April 11, 2019

VUMC-led team ‘sprints’ to develop Zika virus treatment

In January scientists at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and colleagues in Boston, Seattle and St. Louis were given an audacious goal to develop — in 90 days — a protective antibody-based treatment that potentially will stop the spread of the Zika virus.
By Bill Snyder
April 11, 2019

VUMC joins with National Academies, other institutions to launch initiative to prevent sexual harassment in higher education

Vanderbilt University Medical Center has joined the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and over 40 other colleges, universities and research institutions — including Vanderbilt University — to launch an Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education.
April 11, 2019

VISE team seeks to develop new robot to ease prostatectomies

The Vanderbilt Institute for Surgery and Engineering (VISE) team of Robert Webster III, PhD, and Duke Herrell, MD, have received a $2.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop a new surgical robot for endoscopic transurethral prostatectomy.
By Michelle Bukowski
April 11, 2019

Smith named president-elect of Tennessee Medical Association

M. Kevin Smith, MD, PhD, MMHC, assistant professor of Clinical Medicine, has been named president-elect of the Tennessee Medical Association (TMA) effective in May. He will serve as president from May 2020-May 2021.
By Nancy Humphrey
April 11, 2019

Biostatistics expert Zeger set for next Discovery Lecture

Scott Zeger, PhD, professor of Biostatistics at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore and a leading expert on the application of biostatistics to improve health around the world, will deliver the next Flexner Discovery Lecture on Thursday, April 18.
By Bill Snyder
April 11, 2019

Social Worker of the Year

Erika Rodriguez-Muñoz, LMSW, receives her plaque from Josh Owens, LCSW, director of Transition Management, after she was named Carolyn Edwards Social Worker of the Year at the annual Social Work Luncheon. Rodriguez-Muñoz works at Vanderbilt Women’s Health One Hundred Oaks.
By VUMC News and Communications
April 11, 2019

Facility dog helps rehabilitate patients with neurologic diagnoses

The Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences’ newest employee is a physical therapist — but he also has a wet nose and wagging tail.
By Kelsey Herbers
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