Department of Pediatrics

The Vanderbilt Vaccine Research Program has received a major contract from the National Institutes of Health to continue its work as one of the nation’s Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Units.

Vanderbilt’s Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Unit (VTEU) is one of nine U.S. sites funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to test the effectiveness of a vaccine to protect against the H7N9 bird flu that emerged in China this spring.

Emmanuel Volanakis, M.D., assistant professor of Pediatrics and Hematology/Oncology, was awarded a $250,000 Hyundai Hope On Wheels grant last week for his ongoing research into T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), an aggressive blood cancer.

Vanderbilt’s Eskind Diabetes Clinic has been selected to examine the ability of the drug abatacept to prevent type 1 diabetes (T1D). As part of the TrialNet consortium, Vanderbilt will be one of 14 North American sites observing the effects of the drug in people at high risk to develop T1D.

After more than a month in and out of the hospital with her daughter, Kynslee, Kristen Allen felt she was at the end of her rope. Last spring, the nearly 2-year-old Columbia girl developed diarrhea that wouldn’t go away after taking antibiotics for repeated ear infections.

A coronavirus protein is required for replication of the viral genome and may be a good treatment target for SARS and other diseases caused by coronaviruses.