Nature Communications (journal)

New findings shed light on how enzymes that replicate DNA skip over mutations that might cause cancer and restart DNA synthesis further away.

Vanderbilt investigators have identified an unexpected link between cell survival and the polarized delivery of proteins to the surface of mammary epithelial cells.

A natural signaling molecule that activates cannabinoid receptors in the brain plays a critical role in stress-resilience — the ability to adapt to repeated and acute exposures to traumatic stress, according to researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus — two pathogens that frequently co-infect the lungs of patients with cystic fibrosis — appear to cooperate with each other, Vanderbilt investigators have discovered. When pseudomonas is starved for metal by the host, it shuts down the production of factors that would normally kill staph, promoting a co-infection.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a common smoking-related lung illness and the third leading cause of death in the United States. Scientists have long believed that inhaling toxic gases and particles from tobacco smoke causes inflammation of the small airways in the lungs, leading to the development of COPD.

Melanoma-specific expression of a certain protein identifies tumors that are more responsive to an immune therapy.

A new surgical procedure could offer a simpler approach to achieve some of the same weight-loss and metabolic benefits associated with gastric bypass surgery, researchers at VUMC report.