An international research team including scientists from Vanderbilt University has discovered how the diabetes drug metformin blocks glucose production by the liver. The discovery, reported Aug. 27 in the journal Nature Medicine, could lead to development of new ways to treat type 2 diabetes.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) have demonstrated for the first time that it is possible to starve a tumor and stop its growth with a newly discovered small compound that blocks uptake of the vital nutrient glutamine.

Vanderbilt investigators have discovered a novel non-genetic cause of resistance to the targeted anti-cancer therapy cetuximab. Their findings, reported this week in Nature Medicine, suggest a strategy for overcoming this resistance.

Too much dietary zinc increases susceptibility to infection by Clostridium difficile — “C. diff” — the most common cause of hospital-acquired infections.

A Vanderbilt lung cancer patient’s exceptional response to different types of therapies spurred research that suggests lung cancer patients with specific gene alterations may benefit from combination therapy that targets two different cancer pathways.

An enzyme therapy may prevent skeletal abnormalities associated with the genetic disorder neurofibromatosis type-1, Vanderbilt investigators have discovered.