The Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Medical Scholars Research Symposium was held Feb. 4 and highlighted the work of eight medical students who spent the 2017-2018 academic year immersed in research experiences under the guidance of faculty mentors.

Critically ill patients are not benefiting from antipsychotic medications that have been used to treat delirium in intensive care units (ICUs) for more than four decades, according to a study released today in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Millions of patients in intensive care units each year develop delirium during their hospitalization and often leave the hospital with cognitive deficits similar to those suffering from traumatic brain injury or mild Alzheimer’s disease.

A receptor previously implicated in asthma may also play roles in other allergic diseases and in leukemia, Vanderbilt researchers have discovered.

A drug used to treat diabetes may point to new therapies for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) bronchiolitis — inflammation and obstruction of the lungs’ small airways. A multi-disciplinary team of Vanderbilt investigators has demonstrated that liraglutide reduces the inflammatory response to RSV infection in a mouse model of the disease.

With last week’s election of Lorraine Ware, MD, as vice president of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI), two faculty members of the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine are among the current officers of the elite physician-scientist honor society.

Alpha-gal allergy has commonly been referred to as “the red meat” allergy, but doctors at the Vanderbilt Asthma, Sinus and Allergy Program (ASAP) helped uncover that not only red meat, but some medications, can contain alpha-gal.