Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) has been chosen by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to be the Data and Research Support Center for the Precision Medicine Initiative Cohort Program, a landmark study of genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors affecting the health of a million or more people, federal officials have announced.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center has entered into a strategic research agreement with Celgene Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company based in Summit, New Jersey.

Nancy Cox, Ph.D., founding director of the Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, will deliver the next Flexner Discovery Lecture on Thursday, Dec. 17.

Vanderbilt University researchers next month will launch a major initiative to acquire “dense genotypes” from 100,000 individuals whose medical histories are known.

As of last week, Vanderbilt has updated the process used to facilitate patient participation in BioVU, the Medical Center’s DNA repository.

Vanderbilt’s biobank, BioVU, has begun to collect and store plasma, the liquid part of blood, to aid studies of diseases ranging from heart failure and hypertension to breast cancer.

A person’s mitochondrial gene “signature” could predict risk for diabetic retinopathy and guide early intervention strategies.