Department of Medicine

Vanderbilt's Scott Smith, MD, PhD, has been awarded a five-year, $3.5 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, to study the human immune response to tick bites and its role in preventing tick-borne illnesses.

Infectious diseases researcher H. Keipp Talbot, MD, MPH, has been appointed chair of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Excessive consumption of dietary sodium likely was responsible for up to 30% of cardiovascular disease-related deaths among mostly low-income participants in a large cohort study conducted by Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Laboratory and administrative personnel at Vanderbilt University Medical Center were honored on March 29 for research excellence during the 20th annual Research Staff Awards Ceremony.

VUMC's adult and pediatric heart transplant programs recently collaborated to create a pediatric transplant transition day, a new event where pediatric transplant patients meet with their new adult transplant team providers to begin the transition to those providers.

An international research team co-led by Vanderbilt University Medical Center has revealed how variations in gene regulation in different cell types drive pulmonary fibrosis, a progressive respiratory disorder characterized by scarring and loss of functional lung tissue.

Anna Hemnes, MD, has been named director of the Division of Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, physician-in-chief of the Vanderbilt Lung Institute and director of the Center for Lung Research.