Division of Genetic Medicine

Genetic factors are a small but significant contributor to severe depression that does not respond to standard therapy, according to researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Massachusetts General Hospital.

Vanderbilt's Alexander Bick, MD, PhD, has received a Hevolution/AFAR New Investigator Award in Aging Biology and Geroscience Research from the American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR) and Hevolution Foundation.

An analysis of the genomes of more than 1 million people of European ancestry, conducted by several of the world’s leading genomic centers, including Vanderbilt University Medical Center, has identified more than 2,000 independent genetic signals for blood pressure.

Coronary artery disease and major depression may be genetically linked via inflammatory pathways to an increased risk for cardiomyopathy, a degenerative heart muscle disease, researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Massachusetts General Hospital have found.

Study authors used activity, clinical and genetic data from the National Institutes of Health’s All of Us Research Program to explore the association of genetic risk of higher body mass index and the level of physical activity needed to reduce incident obesity. 

Douglas Ruderfer, PhD, whose research at Vanderbilt University Medical Center explores the intersection of genomics, biomedical informatics and psychiatry, has been named director of a newly established Center for Digital Genomic 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.