Division of Genetic Medicine

A U.S.-Canadian research collaboration led by Vanderbilt University Medical Center has identified common, age-associated changes in the blood as a risk factor for acute kidney injury, which occurs in more than 1 in 5 hospitalized adults worldwide.

An international genetic study using multiancestry biobanks has identified novel genetic locations associated with primary open-angle glaucoma, the most common type of glaucoma and the leading cause of irreversible blindness globally.

An analysis of genomic data from nearly 250,000 participants in the National Institutes of Health’s All of Us Research Program has identified more than 275 million previously unreported genetic variations, nearly 4 million of which have potential health consequences.

A comprehensive study that integrates multiple analytic approaches has linked a regulatory gene network and functional defects in insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells to Type 2 diabetes.

As she looks back on her 40-plus year career, what surprises Nancy Cox, PhD, an internationally known geneticist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, is how much progress has been made, and yet how much more there is to learn about the role genetic variation plays in human disease.

African Americans have long been known to be at increased risk of kidney disease due to a dangerous genetic mutation that creates a hole in the kidney cells, but Vanderbilt researchers have now discovered a protective genetic mutation that covers the hole to eliminate the risk.

Vanderbilt University School of Medicine has received a grant to establish a research fellowship for genetic counselors that will prepare them to contribute more fully to the advancement of personalized medicine.