Reporter Jan 20 2017

David Gordon, M.D., dean of the University of Akron College of Health Professions, gave the 2017 Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Lecture on Monday at Vanderbilt, touching on the theme of teamwork as it relates to health care diversity.

Integrins are membrane proteins made up of combinations of different “alpha” and “beta” subunits that enable cells throughout the body to interact with their surroundings.

More than a decade after the anti-inflammatory drugs Vioxx and Bextra were pulled from the market because of a heightened risk of heart attack and stroke in some patients, COX-2 inhibitors may be on the verge of a comeback, this time as anti-cancer agents.

“EpicLeap by the Numbers” is a recently created infographic that gathers, in one place, an array of data points that demonstrate the remarkable magnitude of the EpicLeap program.

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.

Annie Marie Garraway, Ph.D., has created the Levi Watkins Jr., M.D. Scholarship in honor of her late brother, Levi Watkins Jr., M.D.

Metastatic pancreatic cancer — cancer that has spread from the pancreas to other tissues and is responsible for most patient deaths — changes its metabolism and is “reprogrammed” for optimal malignancy, according to new findings reported Jan. 16 in Nature Genetics.