Division of Genetic Medicine

July 26, 2023

Nancy Cox receives American Society of Human Genetics Leadership Award

Nancy Cox, PhD, director of the Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, is the recipient of the 2023 ASHG Leadership Award from the American Society of Human Genetics.

By Bill Snyder
July 20, 2023

Predicting gene expression may speed discovery: study

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the University of Cambridge have developed a method of or predicting gene expression in hard-to-access tissues like the brain from more accessible tissues, including whole blood.

By Bill Snyder
July 14, 2023

Study uses statistical and population-based methods to understand comorbidities of developmental language disorder

A recent Vanderbilt study is one of the first to use statistical and population-based methods to understand comorbidities associated with developmental language disorder at a population level.

By Danny Bonvissuto
photo of William Dupont
June 5, 2023

Study discovers that tumor mutation burden predicts survival outcome

The expected course of a patient’s cancer prognosis has traditionally been judged by its type, stage and microscopic aggressiveness, but patients with the same presentation can still have widely divergent outcomes. Researchers from Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center have discovered that differences in tumor mutation burden are a major reason for this divergence.

By Tom Wilemon
May 24, 2023

Researchers probe the impact of sex and gender on human health

Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Lea Davis, PhD, and longtime colleagues Ekaterina (Katya) Khramtsova, PhD, and Barbara Stranger, PhD, are among seven authors of a paper published May 11 in the journal Cell that outlines “best practices” for evaluating the impact of both sex and gender on human health.

By Bill Snyder
May 18, 2023

New view of mutations informs disease risk, treatment response

A transcontinental research effort led by scientists from Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the University of Michigan has upended some long-standing assumptions about mutations — how often they occur, what causes them and what they do.

By Bill Snyder
May 9, 2023

Neural networks probe proteins

A machine learning method based on neural networks outperformed a mutational scanning model at identifying disease-causing mutations in an Alzheimer’s disease protein, suggesting the method could be useful for facilitating therapeutic design.
By Leigh MacMillan
April 20, 2023

Genetics and chronic pain

Polygenic risk scores — scores that reflect the influence of common genetic variants — could be used to predict the likelihood of developing chronic overlapping pain conditions and guide biomarker and targeted prevention efforts.
By Bill Snyder
April 12, 2023

Research identifies new target that may prevent blood cancer

An international coalition of biomedical researchers co-led by Vanderbilt's Alexander Bick, MD, PhD, has determined a new way to measure the growth rate of precancerous clones of blood stem cells that one day could help doctors lower their patients’ risk of blood cancer.
By Bill Snyder
March 28, 2023

Inflammation implicated in exfoliation syndrome

Computational genetics tools have implicated inflammatory pathways in exfoliation syndrome, the most common cause of secondary glaucoma, which can result in blindness.
By Leigh MacMillan
February 2, 2023

Researchers clarify role of blood cell mutations in disease

Vanderbilt researchers have developed a new method to analyze mutations in blood stem cells that can trigger explosive, clonal expansions of abnormal cells.
By Bill Snyder
January 20, 2023

Study reveals new genetic disorder that causes susceptibility to opportunistic infections

An international consortium co-led by Vanderbilt's Rubén Martínez-Barricarte, PhD, has discovered a new genetic disorder that causes immunodeficiency and profound susceptibility to opportunistic infections including a life-threatening fungal pneumonia. 
By Bill Snyder
January 12, 2023

Chan Zuckerberg Initiative grant supports single-cell study of rare inherited disease

A multidisciplinary team led by Vanderbilt University Medical Center investigator Alexander Bick, MD, PhD, has been awarded a $2 million, four-year grant to study inflammation at the single-cell level in the rare disease RUNX1-FPD.
By Leigh MacMillan
1 2 3 4 … 9