A new class of DNA repair enzyme has been discovered which demonstrates that a much broader range of damage can be removed from the double helix in ways that biologists did not think were possible.

A compound developed by researchers at Vanderbilt University can improve early symptoms and delay progression of Huntington’s disease in a mouse model of the neurodegenerative disorder.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center has received a $9.4 million grant from the National Institute on Aging (NIA) to test the effectiveness of a transdermal nicotine patch in improving memory loss in older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a precursor to Alzheimer’s disease.

Nearly half of all patients with malignant melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer, have a mutation in the BRAF gene found in their tumors. Mutations in the BRAF gene turn on a cancer growth switch known as the MAP kinase pathway.

Data in sports concussion studies will continue to be disputed as long as the injuries are diagnosed by differing standards instead of universal guidelines, a Vanderbilt investigator concludes in a recent review.

Despite benefiting from dramatic improvements in movement after deep brain stimulation surgery, patients with Parkinson’s disease can be inadequately served when physicians and researchers focus only on its motor manifestations, says a Vanderbilt neurosurgeon.

Vanderbilt is embarking on a multi-disciplinary approach to understand how promising cancer treatments, specifically certain kinase inhibitors, affect the heart and kidneys.