Division of Genetic Medicine and Clinical Pharmacology

Pneumonia bacteria
January 21, 2021

Study finds genetic clues to pneumonia risk and COVID-19 disparities

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and colleagues have identified genetic factors that increase the risk for developing pneumonia and its severe, life-threatening consequences.

By Bill Snyder
January 14, 2021

Bick selected as first VUMC Discovery Scholar in Health and Medicine

Alexander Bick, MD, PhD, assistant professor of Medicine in the Division of Genetic Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, has been selected as the first VUMC Discovery Scholar in Health and Medicine.

By Bill Snyder
doctor checking patient's blood pressure
January 12, 2021

Mitochondrial stress and hypertension

Oxidative stress and toxic products called isolevuglandins in mitochondria play a role in endothelial dysfunction and hypertension — and getting rid of them with a special “scavenger” molecule has therapeutic potential.

By Leigh MacMillan
January 7, 2021

Functional seizures associated with stroke, psychiatric disorders in electronic health records study

In a large-scale study of electronic health records, Vanderbilt University Medical Center investigators have determined the prevalence of functional seizures and characterized comorbidities associated with them.

By Leigh MacMillan
October 22, 2020

New tool to probe genetic mechanisms of disease

Vanderbilt Genetics Institute investigators have added a new method to the computational genetics toolbox. Their approach, described in the journal Nature Genetics, integrates vast genomics datasets to predict gene expression and facilitate discovery of genetic mechanisms underlying human diseases.

By Leigh MacMillan
September 17, 2020

Grant from Google to support COVID gene expression study

Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill have been awarded $500,000 by Google’s philanthropy, Google.org, to study how COVID-19 alters gene expression in some people in ways that may be linked to their risk of severe illness and death.

By Bill Snyder
September 10, 2020

Award supports integration of genomic data, electronic health records

Eric Gamazon, PhD, assistant professor of Medicine, has been awarded a $1.5 million grant from the National Human Genome Research Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to develop novel computational tools that integrate functional genomic data and electronic health records.
By Leigh MacMillan
August 20, 2020

Salt, immune cells and hypertension

Excess dietary salt activates immune cells to induce inflammation and hypertension, supporting current recommendations for low sodium consumption.
By Leigh MacMillan
July 29, 2020

Kirabo receives award from American Heart Association

Annet Kirabo, DVM, MSc, PhD, assistant professor of Medicine and Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, is receiving the 2020 Harry Goldblatt Award for Early Career Investigators from the American Heart Association (AHA).
By Matt Batcheldor
July 23, 2020

Criteria for lung cancer screens may be expanded

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) is recommending two changes that will nearly double the number of people eligible for lung cancer screening by lowering the age from 55 to 50 and reducing the number of smoking history pack years from 30 to 20.
By Tom Wilemon
July 9, 2020

Autonomic disorders clinical fellowship created

A new Clinical Fellowship in Autonomic Disorders, administered through the Division of Clinical Pharmacology in the Department of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, will be one of only four accredited fellowship programs in autonomic disorders in the country.
By Bill Snyder
July 1, 2020

VUMC-led network to focus on polygenic risk for common diseases

With the aid of a $75 million, five-year grant renewal, the Electronic Medical Records and Genomics Network (eMERGE) will venture beyond its current focus on monogenic disease to scoring research participants’ relative risk for complex heritable diseases such as cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease and type 2 diabetes.
By Paul Govern
June 23, 2020

Two VUMC researchers named 2020 Chancellor Faculty Fellows

Two Vanderbilt University Medical Center researchers -- Jennifer (Piper) Below, PhD, associate professor of Medicine, and Ivelin Georgiev, PhD, associate professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology -- have been selected for the 2020 cohort of Chancellor Faculty Fellows at Vanderbilt University.
By Bill Snyder