Department of Pathology Microbiology and Immunology

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.

Vanderbilt investigators have discovered a class of compounds that inhibit a mediator of inflammation and autoimmune disorders, and that could pave the way for development of future therapies.

Too much dietary manganese — an essential trace mineral found in leafy green vegetables, fruits and nuts — promotes infection of the heart by the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus (“staph”).

Vanderbilt researchers are discovering ways that host proteins block HIV-1 infection, which could suggest new avenues for treatment.

On July 24 Vanderbilt scientist Eric Skaar, Ph.D., MPH, summarized his group’s latest paper in a tweet: “If S. aureus is going to drink our blood like a vampire, let's kill it with sunlight.”

Vanderbilt researchers have found that non-coding regions of the genome appear to contribute to the risk of autoimmune diseases and may represent attractive therapeutic targets.

Autophagy is the cellular equivalent of trash pickup and recycling — it is a process by which proteins, protein aggregates and damaged cellular organelles are degraded in order to reuse nutrients and promote cellular metabolism.