Department of Medicine

From left, Wei Zheng, MD, PhD, Jae Jeong Yang, PhD, Danxia Yu, PhD, and colleagues are studying smoking patterns and associated deaths in Asian countries.

April 18, 2019

Asian nations in early tobacco epidemic: study

Asian countries are in the early stages of a tobacco smoking epidemic with habits mirroring those of the United States from past decades, setting the stage for a spike in future deaths from smoking-related diseases.

By Tom Wilemon

The Vanderbilt team studying histoplasmosis includes (front row, from left, Heidi Chen, PhD, Melinda Aldrich, PhD, MPH, (back row, from left) Stephen Deppen, PhD, Eric Grogan, MD, MPH, and Jeffrey Blume, PhD.

April 18, 2019

Team explores fungal infection quandary in lung cancer screenings

Serving a region that lies within the tobacco belt, clinicians at Vanderbilt Health face challenges distinguishing lung cancer from histoplasmosis, a fungal infection that creates cancer-mimicking lesions in the lungs.

By Tom Wilemon

Research by Robert Coffey, MD, left, Dennis Jeppesen, PhD, and colleagues has revealed a new way cells shed DNA into the bloodstream.

April 11, 2019

Discovery aids search for cancer biomarkers

A report by researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center has shattered conventional wisdom about how cells, including cancer cells, shed DNA into the bloodstream: they don’t do it by packaging the genetic material in tiny vesicles called exosomes.

By Bill Snyder

From left, Benjamin Brown, Christine Lovly, MD, PhD, Yun-Kai Zhang, PhD, Jens Meiler, PhD, and colleagues are exploring new ways to understand resistance to targeted cancer therapy drugs.

April 11, 2019

Study reframes approach to targeted therapy resistance

When a tumor mutates and develops resistance to a targeted therapy, researchers often focus on the acquisition of new mutations within the drug target as they seek an alternative treatment, but a team of Vanderbilt scientists has shown this may not be sufficient.

By Tom Wilemon

April 4, 2019

Harvard’s Gaziano set for April 11 clinical pharmacology lecture

J. Michael Gaziano, MD, MPH, an internationally recognized chronic disease epidemiologist, will deliver the 15th annual Grant R. Wilkinson Distinguished Lectureship in Clinical Pharmacology on Thursday, April 11.

By Leigh MacMillan

Speakers at the inaugural SCRIPS Spring Symposium (Supporting Careers in Research for Interventional Physicians and Surgeons) last week were, from left, Kelle Moley, MD, senior vice president and chief scientific officer of the March of Dimes; 2018 SCRIPS Scholars Yash Choksi, MD, and Akshitkumar Mistry, MD; and Anil Rustgi, MD, the T. Grier Miller Professor of Medicine and Genetics at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine and incoming director of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center in New York. The SCRIPS program is supported by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund.

March 28, 2019

SCRIPS Symposium

Speakers at the inaugural SCRIPS Spring Symposium (Supporting Careers in Research for Interventional Physicians and Surgeons) last week were, from left, Kelle Moley, MD, senior vice president and chief scientific officer of the March of Dimes; 2018 SCRIPS Scholars Yash Choksi, MD, and Akshitkumar Mistry, MD; and Anil Rustgi, MD.