Reporter Sept 3 2021

Regulators of fat cell metabolism

Sep. 7, 2021—Vanderbilt researchers have discovered new details of the regulation of fat cell metabolism, findings that are important for combating obesity.

Medical diagnoses in musicians

Sep. 6, 2021—Vanderbilt researchers mined electronic health records to find medical diagnoses that are more or less prevalent among musicians, who are present in large numbers in “Music City.”

White matter and schizophrenia

Sep. 2, 2021—Patients with schizophrenia have functional changes in the white matter of the brain, Vanderbilt researchers have discovered, which may contribute to impaired working memory and processing speed.

Using billing codes to count cancers

Sep. 2, 2021—The billing codes in electronic health records are useful for counting skin cancers over time — an important metric for cancer risk assessment and prevention.

Rheumatoid arthritis drug combined with standard of care may help reduce mortality for hospitalized COVID-19 patients

Sep. 2, 2021—Hospitalized patients with COVID-19 who received the rheumatoid arthritis drug baricitinib, in combination with the standard of care including corticosteroids, died less often than those receiving only the standard of care, according to a study released this week in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine.

The team studying tumor suppressor protein p53 includes, from left, Jennifer Pietenpol, PhD, and Lindsay Redman-Rivera.

Discovery offers insight for development of cancer therapies targeting mutant p53

Sep. 2, 2021—Vanderbilt researchers have discovered that aneuploidy (an abnormal number of chromosomes) drives malignant phenotypes in cells expressing mutant p53, a tumor suppressor protein that is mutated in more than half of all human cancers.

This artist rendering shows the home that will be raffled off to benefit Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt.

Children’s Hospital to benefit from raffle of new home

Sep. 2, 2021—Middle Tennessee home builder Willow Branch Homes has donated one of their new homes to raffle off in support of Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt.

Study shows gene-drug interactions are common

Sep. 2, 2021—When a drug or combination of drugs causes different responses in different people, genetic variation is often at play. Pharmacogenomics, through discovery of genetic risk and use of clinical genotyping, aims to reduce trial-and-error approaches to drug prescribing.

Navy vet LeClere joins VWCH orthopaedic surgery team

Sep. 2, 2021—Cmdr. Lance LeClere, MD, former orthopaedic surgeon for the U.S. Navy Seals and current head team physician for the U.S. Naval Academy, is joining Vanderbilt Orthopaedics Lebanon at Vanderbilt Wilson County Hospital (VWCH) beginning Sept. 7.