Vanderbilt’s Robert Coffey Jr., M.D., has received an Outstanding Investigator Award from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) — more than $6.6 million over seven years — to support studies aimed at advancing the diagnosis and treatment of colorectal cancer (CRC), a leading cancer killer.

Under the microscope, they sparkle like emeralds, these molecules that may hold a key to understanding — and stopping — cancerous growth.

The Association of American Physicians (AAP) is an honorary medical society founded in 1885 by Sir William Osler and six other physicians for “the advancement of scientific and practical medicine.” This year, 60 additional physician scientists were elected to the association, including three Vanderbilt faculty members.

For more than a dozen years Buz Harrison, a Nashville-based media producer, has been plagued by gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).

Despite dramatic recent advances in treatment, colorectal cancer killed more than 49,000 Americans last year, according to the National Cancer Institute, making it the second most lethal malignancy after cancers of the lung and bronchus.

Vanderbilt investigators have discovered that activated epidermal growth factor receptor may be a target for therapies to prevent colorectal cancer development.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) is one of four centers receiving a $15 million, four-year research award from the American Heart Association (AHA) to provide cutting-edge research on obesity as part of its sixth Strategically Focused Research Network (SFRN).