Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics

Alyssa Hasty and colleagues demonstrated that immune cells called macrophages act in fat tissue to store iron and prevent iron toxicity.

When it comes to diet-induced obesity, your immune system is not always your friend.

An international research team including scientists from Vanderbilt University has discovered how the diabetes drug metformin blocks glucose production by the liver. The discovery, reported Aug. 27 in the journal Nature Medicine, could lead to development of new ways to treat type 2 diabetes.

Non-exercise physical activity has a measurable energy expenditure, which goes down when animals engage in voluntary exercise, Vanderbilt researchers have discovered.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University have discovered how insulin crosses the capillary endothelium to exit blood vessels and stimulate skeletal muscle cells — a major finding that may lead to new ways to reverse insulin resistance, a hallmark of type 2 diabetes.

Fifteen Vanderbilt faculty members conducting a range of biomedical and clinical research have been elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Six of the 15 have received funding through the university’s Trans-Institutional Programs initiative, which facilitates research and teaching collaborations across disciplines and are a core pillar of the university’s Academic Strategic Plan.

This summer the Vanderbilt Mouse Metabolic Phenotyping Center (MMPC) began its 17th year of continuous operation and federal support with a $5.5 million, five-year renewal grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).