Department of Veterans Affairs Archives

VUMC investigators find pathogens work together to infect host

Nov. 3, 2016—Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus — two pathogens that frequently co-infect the lungs of patients with cystic fibrosis — appear to cooperate with each other, Vanderbilt investigators have discovered. When pseudomonas is starved for metal by the host, it shuts down the production of factors that would normally kill staph, promoting a co-infection.

VA honors Richmond’s scientific contributions

Oct. 6, 2016—Vanderbilt University cancer researcher Ann Richmond, Ph.D., has won the 2016 William S. Middleton Award, the highest honor for scientific achievement bestowed by the Biomedical Laboratory Research and Development Service of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

In search of new asthma therapies

Aug. 15, 2016—A peptide molecule relaxes airway smooth muscle and may be a potential therapeutic for asthma that has become resistant to standard therapies.

Superior scan for tumors

Jun. 24, 2016—Imaging with a compound that binds to neuroendocrine cells is a safer and more effective way to detect rare neuroendocrine tumors.

It takes two to tango: beta cell development

Jun. 23, 2016—Defining the genes required for the function of insulin-producing beta cells is crucial for ongoing efforts to develop a cell-based therapy for diabetes.

How strep grabs on to platelets

Apr. 20, 2016—New structural details of the binding of the bacterium Streptococcus sanguinis to platelets may offer new therapeutics for life-threatening cardiovascular infections.

Switching breast cancer off

Apr. 14, 2016—Signaling by a receptor that is overexpressed in aggressive forms of breast cancer has been linked to glutamine metabolism, suggesting new anti-cancer therapeutic targets.

Immune defenses in asthma

Apr. 5, 2016—Vanderbilt researchers show that a certain factor negatively impacts the first-line responder cells in the lungs, providing one explanation for why patients with asthma are at greater risk for invasive bacterial disease.

Powers receives award from Nutrition and Dietetics association

Mar. 31, 2016—James Powers, M.D., associate professor of Medicine and chief of Geriatric Medicine at the Veteran Affairs Medical Center, was recently named to receive the Iris Award from the Nashville Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

Readmission prediction face-off

Mar. 23, 2016—Using patients’ health records to assess preparedness for hospital discharge is more effective at predicting readmission or death than commonly used questionnaires.

Study suggests cancer’s ‘clock’ can be rewound

Mar. 17, 2016—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.