Louise Rollins-Smith Archive — Page 1 of 1

Hellbender salamander with a long, flattened, wrinkled body and mottled brown, orange, and gray skin, shown against a white background.
February 20, 2023

Probing hellbender health

Understanding how hellbenders — large, fully aquatic salamanders — fight fungal pathogens and disease is important for protecting these unique stream predators; Vanderbilt researchers add new insights.

By Leigh MacMillan
Bright orange salamander with dark-ringed spots crawling across a rocky streambed.
March 8, 2021

Temperature, newts and a skin-eating fungus

Salamanders are more sensitive to a skin-eating fungus at colder temperatures, pointing to locations of North America where pathogen invasion is most likely.

By Leigh MacMillan
Green and yellow spotted frog with large eyes and long hind legs, shown against a white background.
November 2, 2020

Frog peptides as anti-HIV microbicides

Peptides derived from the antimicrobial peptides secreted by frogs could function as microbicides to limit HIV transmission, while sparing protective vaginal bacteria.

By Leigh MacMillan
Close-up of a bright green red-eyed tree frog perched on leaves, with large red eyes and orange feet visible.
May 9, 2019

Frog fungus fights back

Louise Rollins-Smith and colleagues are exploring how a deadly fungus counters the amphibian immune response and contributes to declining worldwide amphibian populations.

By Leigh MacMillan
Louise Rollins-Smith, PhD, right, Laura Reinert, MS, and colleagues are studying how amphibian populations are impacted by climate change.
February 21, 2019

Research shows frogs can adapt to traffic noise

Frogs don’t like living near noisy highways any better than people do, but research from Vanderbilt suggests that frogs, like hardened city-dwellers, can learn to adapt to the constant din of rumbling trucks, rolling tires and honking horns.

By Nora Foegeding
Bright green red-eyed tree frog resting on a striped green leaf.
April 5, 2018

Study reveals frogs bouncing back in Panama

A new study reports that some Central American frog species are recovering from a deadly fungal epidemic, perhaps because they have better defenses against the pathogen.

By Leigh MacMillan