Science/Medicine

June 30, 2010

Vanderbilt No. 12 on 2010 list of best places for life scientists to work

By VUMC News and Communications
June 1, 2010

Nanosponge drug delivery system more effective than direct injection

When loaded with an anticancer drug, a delivery system based on a novel material called nanosponge is three to five times more effective at reducing tumor growth than direct injection.

By VUMC News and Communications
May 28, 2010

Vanderbilt medical researchers, engineers play major role in new national center established to secure the privacy of electronic health information

Slowly but steadily the U.S. health care community is moving into the digital age: shifting their medical records from paper to electronic information systems. This movement raises serious concerns about security and privacy of patients’ medical information.

By VUMC News and Communications
May 10, 2010

How cancer cells lose their (circadian) rhythm

Immortality and uncontrolled cell division are the fundamental differences between cancer cells and normal cells.

By VUMC News and Communications
March 16, 2010

Psychopaths’ brains wired to seek rewards, no matter the consequences

The brains of psychopaths appear to be wired to keep seeking a reward at any cost, new research from Vanderbilt University finds. The research uncovers the role of the brain’s reward system in psychopathy and opens a new area of study for understanding what drives these individuals.

By VUMC News and Communications
March 16, 2010

Vanderbilt professor offers key factors in recruiting minorities, women to critical science, engineering careers

Identification of students with unrealized potential, continuous tracking of individual performance and intensive, one-on-one mentoring are key factors in successfully recruiting underrepresented minorities and women into the critical professions of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

By VUMC News and Communications
March 11, 2010

Human cells exhibit foraging behavior like amoebae and bacteria

When cells move about in the body, they follow a complex pattern similar to that which amoebae and bacteria use when searching for food, a team of Vanderbilt researchers have found.
By VUMC News and Communications
February 18, 2010

A new type of genetic variation could strengthen natural selection

The unexpected discovery of a new type of genetic variation suggests that natural selection – the force that drives evolution – is both more powerful and more complex than scientists have thought.
By VUMC News and Communications
December 21, 2009

TIPSHEET: The future of Pluto and Ceres

Three years ago, when the International Astronomical Union demoted Pluto to dwarf planet status, the unpopular decision was based on personal opinions and professional politics, not on rigorous scientific criteria that can clearly differentiate planets from lesser bodies, points out Vanderbilt astronomer David Weintraub. In the next decade, however, the amount of knowledge that we have about Pluto and another dwarf planet, Ceres, will change dramatically and this new information may affect our views of these objects and their status in the solar system as asteroids, dwarf planets or planets.
By VUMC News and Communications
December 18, 2009

Nuclear energy powered by uranium from the sea could promote peace in coming century

One of the best things the world can do to promote peace and stability in the coming century is to expand commercial nuclear power based on the extraction of uranium from the ocean. That is the proposition which Frank Parker, an internationally recognized expert in remediation of radioactively contaminated soil and water and a member of the National Academy of Engineering, advanced at an exclusive meeting held at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in the Vatican last month.
By VUMC News and Communications
December 17, 2009

Astronomer receives NSF award to study black holes’ evolution and to support Fisk-Vanderbilt minority Ph.D. program

Vanderbilt University Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy Kelly Holley-Bockelmann has been awarded the National Science Foundation's largest ever Faculty Early Career Development grant in the field of astronomy. She will use the prestigious award to continue her studies of black holes while supporting the university's innovative program designed to make the university the top producer of underrepresented minorities with Ph.D.s in physics and astronomy.
By VUMC News and Communications
November 17, 2009

New study confirms exotic electric properties of graphene

First, it was the soccer-ball-shaped molecules dubbed buckyballs. Then it was the cylindrically shaped nanotubes. Now, the hottest new material in physics and nanotechnology is graphene: a remarkably flat molecule made of carbon atoms arranged in hexagonal rings much like molecular chicken wire.
By VUMC News and Communications
November 12, 2009

Watch: “The Living Dead: Ancient Ancestors and Mummies in the Pre-Incan Andes”

Watch video of a Nov. 11 talk "The Living Dead: Ancient Ancestors and Mummies in the Pre-Incan Andes, " by Dr. Tiffiny Tung, Assistant Professor of Anthropology.
By VUMC News and Communications