Health and Medicine
Gene variant and glucose metabolism
Feb. 18, 2021—Genetic variation that impacts glucose- and insulin-related signaling affects responses to type 2 diabetes treatments and warrants further study.
Research Staff Awards honor those who help drive engines of discovery
Feb. 18, 2021—Laboratory and administrative personnel at Vanderbilt University Medical Center were honored last week for research excellence during the 17th annual Research Staff Awards, held virtually this year because of the pandemic.
VUMC postdoctoral scientist named HHMI Hanna Gray Fellow
Feb. 18, 2021—Valeria Reyes Ruiz, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, has been selected as a 2020 Hanna Gray Fellow by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI).
Vanderbilt, Zambia researchers find delirium in hospitalized patients linked to mortality, disability in Sub-Saharan Africa
Feb. 11, 2021—Delirium, a form of acute brain dysfunction, is widespread in critically ill patients in lower resourced hospitals, and the duration of delirium predicted both mortality and disability at six months after discharge, according to a study published in PLOS ONE.
Grant supports speedy sorting of health records by phenotype
Feb. 11, 2021—Wei-Qi Wei, MD, PhD, assistant professor of Biomedical Informatics and scientific director of the Precision Phenotyping Core at the Center for Precision Medicine, has been awarded a four-year, $1.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (grant GM139891) to continue
Study will delve into EHR for signs of suicidality
Feb. 11, 2021—Retrieval of clearer, more complete information from the EHR could go a long way toward improving predictive models of who will next be at risk of suicide, thereby improving care for patients with suicidal thoughts and behaviors.
Imaging guidance for nerve repair
Feb. 9, 2021—A noninvasive, quantitative MRI method could be used after surgical repair of traumatic peripheral nerve injury to help clinicians make decisions about whether additional surgical interventions are needed.
Key factors in HIV-1 replication
Feb. 8, 2021—HIV-1, the virus that causes AIDS, exploits inositol phosphates in T cells to aid its own assembly and maturation — suggesting that targeting inositol phosphate binding could inhibit HIV-1 replication.
Convalescent plasma improved survival in COVID-19 patients with blood cancers
Feb. 5, 2021—Treatment with convalescent plasma vastly improved the survival rate of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 who also had hematologic malignances that compromise the immune system, according to new data released by the COVID-19 and Cancer Consortium (CCC19).
New clue to postural tachycardia
Feb. 4, 2021—Insight into the pathophysiology of an enigmatic and debilitating disease suggests new treatment approaches.
Potential biomarker for IBD severity, cancer risk identified
Feb. 4, 2021—A selenium transport protein produced in the colon may be a novel biomarker for assessing disease severity and cancer risk in patients with inflammatory bowel disease.
Gene network for leukemia factor
Feb. 4, 2021—A new method speeds the analysis of factors that control gene expression from days to minutes, allowing researchers to uncover new targets for cancer treatment.
