My Special Aflac Duck engages and comforts children

Patients at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt were surprised with their very own My Special Aflac Duck, a high-tech robot that uses medical play, lifelike movement and emotions to engage and help comfort children during their cancer care.

Team seeks to identify immune response to influenza

Vanderbilt researchers, as part of the International Human Vaccines Project, are searching for the key to lasting protection against influenza by examining naturally protecting cells found in bone marrow.

Grant to help explore critical issues in Down syndrome

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.

An approaching hurricane. A critically ill baby. A Vanderbilt team flies in to help.

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

VUMC’s Undiagnosed Diseases Network site gains NIH renewal

Innovative strategies crucial in opioid epidemic response

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.