People with a high polygenic risk score for colorectal cancer could benefit more at preventing the disease by leading healthy lifestyles than those at lower genetic risk, according to a study by Vanderbilt researchers published in the April issue of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Racial disparities in hypertension risk are due in part to genetic differences between ancestries, Vanderbilt investigators find in a study of participants in the Million Veteran Program.

Dan Roden, MD, Senior Vice President for Personalized Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, received the Oscar B. Hunter Career Award in Therapeutics last week at the virtual annual meeting of the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics.

Postoperative atrial fibrillation (PoAF), a form of arrhythmia, complicates 20-40% of cardiac surgical procedures and 10–20% of non-cardiac thoracic operations, cropping up two to four days after surgery to pose risk of stroke, heart attack, mortality, longer hospital stays and greater cost.

A study by Vanderbilt researchers that analyzed both smoking history and genetic risk variants for lung cancer supports modifying current guidelines to include additional smokers for lung cancer screening.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and colleagues have identified genetic factors that increase the risk for developing pneumonia and its severe, life-threatening consequences.

Vanderbilt Genetics Institute investigators have added a new method to the computational genetics toolbox. Their approach, described in the journal Nature Genetics, integrates vast genomics datasets to predict gene expression and facilitate discovery of genetic mechanisms underlying human diseases.