On June 30, John Tarpley, M.D., retired after 23 years of service at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and the Nashville VA Medical Center. The next day, he packed a suitcase, and on July 2 he boarded a Kenya-bound plane, a move that was absolutely no surprise to all who know him.

James Goldenring, M.D., Ph.D., co-director of the Epithelial Biology Center at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), has received a Research Mentor Award from the American Gastroenterology Association Institute Council for “outstanding research mentorship.”

An estimated 5 billion people — two-thirds of the world’s population — do not have access to surgery because of a lack of facilities, money and trained surgeons and anesthesiologists.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have “turned back the clock” in a mouse model of metaplasia — precancerous stomach lesions — raising hopes that gastric cancer, a worldwide scourge that’s rising in the United States, can be prevented.

Test after test failed to reveal why Denny Majano wasn’t gaining weight or why he suffered from severe, chronic diarrhea. At 5 weeks old, instead of gaining weight as newborns should, Denny had lost a pound since birth.

Carmen Solórzano, M.D., professor of Surgery and director of the Endocrine Surgery Center at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), has been named chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology and Endocrine Surgery in the Department of Surgery.