The Vanderbilt Kennedy Center (VKC) has received a one-year $604,000 grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) to use Vanderbilt University Medical Center electronic medical record information and biological samples to develop a deeper understanding of critical issues in Down syndrome and to provide an infrastructure for future analyses.

"The mother was so grateful that we were able to get her baby to a safe place.”

Reining in the nation’s opioid epidemic will require diverse and innovative strategies ranging from drug discovery to “policy translation,” according to speakers at a recent Vanderbilt Faculty Cutting-edge Discovery Lecture.

Lily Hensiek, diagnosed with pre B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia 10 years ago at age 7, has helped raise $1 million, through community fundraisers and individual donors, to create two funds to support pediatric cancer research and training at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. The funds are the Lily’s Garden Endowed Lecture in Childhood Cancer and the Lily’s Garden Research Fund.

Vanderbilt researchers have discovered that IgM-type antibodies appear to play a protective role to prevent the development of type 1 diabetes — and that purified IgM antibodies can reverse the disease.

Steven Webber, MBChB, MRCP, chair of the Department of Pediatrics, delivered the annual State of the Department address Sept. 4, celebrating the people that form the department while reviewing major achievements in the past year and discussing the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead.