Reporter Nov 4 2016

brain and lightning

Protein structure and epilepsy severity

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

Improving wound healing

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.

Probing drug abuse circuitry

Vanderbilt researchers have identified cocaine-induced modifications at specific neuronal connections, which could aid the development of new therapies for substance abuse disorders.

Commitment to service excellence recognized

The most recent Credo Award, Five Pillar Leader, and Elevate Team Award winners were announced at this week’s Clinical Enterprise Leadership Assembly at Langford Auditorium. The awards are conferred on a quarterly basis.

Complex facial surgery helps bring back patients’ smiles

When Kelly Davis woke up one morning in April, she told her husband Anthony that she dreamed her face was moving; then she looked in the mirror and saw that it really was.

tug-of-rope pair

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.

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