As choices mount for patient testing and treatment, diagnostic management has arisen at Vanderbilt University Medical Center to address two closely related questions that clinicians must ask themselves more and more often: have I ordered the right tests for this patient; and, taken together, what do these test results imply for the best treatment of this patient?

Researchers have found an unusual interaction between a factor that “turns on” protein synthesis and one that produces fatty acids.

Vanderbilt investigators report new insights to the workings of calprotectin, an immune system protein that “starves” bacterial pathogens of the metal nutrients they require.

It may be possible to fight hospital-acquired pathogens like Acinetobacter baumannii by targeting the bacterium’s need for the nutrient metal zinc.

Components of human breast milk help ward off viral infection, a new study shows.

Antioxidants promote cell growth in a mouse model of prostate cancer, Vanderbilt researchers report in the journal PLoS ONE. The findings provide insight into the recent controversy regarding antioxidants and prostate cancer prevention.

Study adds evidence for infectious agents’ role in sarcoidosis, an inflammatory condition that can lead to respiratory failure and death.