Jennifer Pietenpol, PhD, director of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC), Benjamin F. Byrd Jr. Professor of Oncology and Executive Vice President for Research for Vanderbilt University Medical Center, is stepping down on June 30 from her long-held role as the Cancer Center’s director to focus on a combined leadership role for VUMC as chief scientific and strategy officer (CSSO).

Michael Waterman, PhD, former chair of the Department of Biochemistry for 18 years, died Nov. 7

C. difficile — the leading cause of hospital-associated intestinal infections — induces a rapid influx of bile acids into the gut, which could provide a novel target for blocking infection.

Vanderbilt researchers have discovered that aneuploidy (an abnormal number of chromosomes) drives malignant phenotypes in cells expressing mutant p53, a tumor suppressor protein that is mutated in more than half of all human cancers.

Vanderbilt researchers report a comprehensive tissue-specific atlas of protein and mRNA expression for p63 and p73, members of the p53 family signaling network that is the most frequent target of mutations in human cancers.

David Cortez, PhD, Richard N. Armstrong, PhD, Professor of Innovation in Biochemistry and professor of Biochemistry, has been appointed chair of the Department of Biochemistry.