Department of Medicine

Benjamin Brown, left, Jens Meiler, PhD, Zhenfang Du, PhD, and colleagues are studying the functional consequences of genetic mutations and how those changes can drive cancerous growth.
April 8, 2021

Personalized Structural Biology aids cancer treatment decisions

Cancer specialists at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, in partnership with biochemists and structural biologists across the Vanderbilt University campus, are taking “personalized” cancer therapy to a new level.

By Bill Snyder
From left, Kimryn Rathmell, MD, PhD, Bradley Reinfeld, Matthew Madden and Jeffrey Rathmell, PhD, have discovered that immune cells — not cancer cells — are the major glucose consumers in the tumor microenvironment, upending a century-old observation.
April 7, 2021

Study revises understanding of cancer metabolism

Tumors consume glucose at high rates, but a team of Vanderbilt researchers has discovered that cancer cells themselves are not the culprit, upending models of cancer metabolism that have been developed and refined over the last 100 years.

By Leigh MacMillan
April 6, 2021

Vanderbilt mourns the passing of Pierre Massion

Pierre Massion, MD, Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair and Professor of Medicine, an internationally known expert on early detection and prevention strategies for lung cancer, died April 4 of an apparent heart attack. He was 58.

By Tom Wilemon
April 5, 2021

New Clinician Spotlight: Robert Ramirez

Robert Ramirez, DO, a thoracic and neuroendocrine oncologist, has joined Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center after practicing at Ochsner Medical Center and Louisiana State University (LSU) Health Science Center in New Orleans.

By VUMC News and Communications
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
April 1, 2021

Stone lands faculty development award

The American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology Foundation has awarded a three-year, $240,000 Faculty Development Award to Cosby Stone Jr., MD, MPH, instructor in Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

By Paul Govern
March 31, 2021

Physician-scientists Aliyu, Tindle elected to ASCI

Vanderbilt’s Muktar Aliyu, MBBS, MPH, DrPH, and Hilary Tindle, MD, MPH, will be inducted this year into the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI), an elite honor society of physician-scientists from the upper ranks of academic medicine and industry.
By Bill Snyder
March 25, 2021

Spirituality may help reduce end-stage kidney disease risk

Researchers from Vanderbilt’s Division of Nephrology and Hypertension have identified an under-studied characteristic that may have a protective effect on end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) risk among vulnerable populations.
By Emily Stembridge
March 25, 2021

Team studies new use for pulmonary hypertension drug

An FDA-approved medication enhances the function of T regulatory cells (Treg), a class of immune cells that restrains the immune response, Vanderbilt investigators have discovered.
By Leigh MacMillan
March 23, 2021

Prostate cancer microenvironment

Distinct cancer-associated fibroblasts in the prostate tumor microenvironment may influence tumor progression and could point to new therapeutic targets.
By Leigh MacMillan
March 18, 2021

HIV, diabetes and immune cells in fat

In HIV-positive individuals with diabetes, immune cells in fat are more proinflammatory and cytotoxic and may represent a therapeutic target for diabetes.
By Leigh MacMillan
March 18, 2021

Vanderbilt research played key role in new lung screen guidelines

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has formally recommended two changes that will nearly double the number of people eligible for lung cancer screening by lowering the age from 55 to 50 and reducing the number of smoking history pack years from 30 to 20.
By Tom Wilemon
March 18, 2021

EGFR Resisters/LUNGevity fund lung cancer research

Christine Lovly, MD, PhD, associate professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology and Oncology and Ingram Professor of Cancer Research, is one of two inaugural recipients of the EGFR Resisters/LUNGevity Lung Cancer Research Award.
By Tom Wilemon