Reducing heart muscle response to calcium could decrease the risk of fatal arrhythmias after heart attacks.

Benjamin Byrd III, M.D., professor of Cardiovascular Medicine, has been named president of the 16,000-member American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) for a one-year term following the society’s 24th Annual Scientific Sessions, which were held earlier this month in Minneapolis.

Christine Lovly, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of Medicine, has received the 2013 Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator Award, which supports young physician-scientists conducting patient-oriented cancer research.

Vanderbilt nephrologist, Thomas Golper, M.D., professor of Medicine in Nephrology and Hypertension, is leading an effort to form a research consortium with a goal of improving care for kidney failure patients who receive a form of home dialysis.

The American Gastroentero-logical Association (AGA) has honored Pelayo Correa, M.D., with its Distinguished Achievement Award, which recognizes an individual for contributions to research that have advanced the science and practice of gastroenterology.

Since it was founded in 1963, the Vanderbilt Division of Clinical Pharmacology has pioneered “translational science” and continues to transform medical practice worldwide, speakers at the division’s 50th anniversary scientific symposium said last week.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center led by a 32-year-old postdoctoral fellow have discovered a new mechanism for the development of cancer that is challenging conventional scientific wisdom.