Coronary artery disease and major depression may be genetically linked via inflammatory pathways to an increased risk for cardiomyopathy, a degenerative heart muscle disease, researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Massachusetts General Hospital have found.

Chris Williams, MD, PhD, associate dean for Physician-Scientist Education and Training at Vanderbilt University, has been named to lead Research Education at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center.

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.