Department of Cell and Developmental Biology

April 29, 2021

A compound to counteract aging?

A compound that increases lifespan in yeast is offering clues to pharmacological approaches that might slow the aging process and improve health.

By Leigh MacMillan
Deanna Edwards, PhD, left, Jin Chen, MD, PhD, and colleagues are studying a new therapeutic strategy for triple-negative breast cancer.
April 1, 2021

Breast cancer cells ‘steal’ nutrients from immune cells: study

Triple-negative breast cancer cells engage in a “glutamine steal” — outcompeting T cells for the nutrient glutamine and impairing their ability to kill tumor cells, Vanderbilt researchers have discovered.

By Leigh MacMillan
February 18, 2021

Genetic clues in eye birth defect

Sabine Fuhrmann and colleagues have discovered a novel underlying cause of coloboma — a birth defect that causes missing tissue in the eye and accounts for up to 10% of childhood blindness.

By Leigh MacMillan
January 21, 2021

WIN for blocking cancer growth

William Tansey and colleagues identified proteins that interact with the cancer drug target WDR5 and are important for cancer cell growth.

By Sarah E. Glass
November 18, 2020

Why does COVID-19 seem to spare children? Vanderbilt University Medical Center study offers an answer 

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and their colleagues have determined a key factor as to why COVID-19 appears to infect and sicken adults and older people preferentially while seeming to spare younger children. 

By Bill Snyder
November 12, 2020

New therapeutic target for lung cancer

Vanderbilt researchers have identified a new molecular partner — and potential therapeutic target — in a signaling axis that drives lung cancer.

By Sarah E. Glass
October 20, 2020

Preserving gut mucus architecture

A new method that keeps microbes and gut cells together will be useful for studies of complex host-microbe interactions and for analysis of clinical specimens.
By Leigh MacMillan
October 15, 2020

Possible COVID-19 “decoy”

It might be possible to use vesicles carrying the receptor for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, to bind the virus and prevent infection.
By Bill Snyder
October 15, 2020

Factor involved in stomach injury response identified

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have identified a key factor that coordinates the body’s repair response to severe injury in the stomach caused, most commonly, by infection by the bacterium Helicobacter pylori.
By Bill Snyder
October 8, 2020

Researchers create molecular ‘atlas’ of GI tract neurons

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have generated the first comprehensive molecular “atlas” of genes expressed by the neuronal cells within the intestine that coordinate the functions of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract.
By Bill Snyder
September 4, 2020

Gould named senior associate dean for Biomedical Research, Education and Career Development

Kathleen Gould, PhD, Louise B. McGavock Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology in the School of Medicine Basic Sciences, has been named senior associate dean for Biomedical Research, Education and Career Development.
By Carol Rouzer
August 20, 2020

A “torque” for tumor blood vessels

Vanderbilt scientists have discovered a new target for normalizing tumor blood vessels to improve cancer immunotherapies.
By Bill Snyder
August 6, 2020

The importance of estrogen cycles

Deborah Lannigan and colleagues identify a key regulator of the estrogen receptor and suggest that its downregulation by oral contraceptives may increase oxidative stress and DNA damage, a common cause of cancer.
By Sarah E. Glass
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