Research Archives

Monica Elnekaveh hugs her daughter Eleanor, who is wearing a gauze cap to keep the adhesive-attached electrodes and wires in place during a 72-hour ambulatory electroencephalogram (EEG), used in the diagnosis of epilepsy, head injury and other brain disorders. (photo courtesy of Monica Elnekaveh)

Nonprofits support quest to cure childhood epilepsy

Nov. 29, 2023—Monica Joanna Elnekaveh was doing everything she could to learn what was causing her 18-month-old daughter’s developmental issues. Her relentless quest to find answers eventually led her to Vanderbilt investigative neurologist Jing-Qiong (Katty) Kang, MD, PhD.

Commensal gut bacterium protects from severe intestinal infection

Nov. 21, 2023— The commensal bacterium Turicibacter sanguinis could be used to protect against severe intestinal infections, Vanderbilt researchers discovered.

VUMC scientists discover key step to kidney fibrosis

Nov. 21, 2023—Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center for the first time have shown that activation of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is essential for the development of kidney fibrosis, tissue scarring following injury that can lead to kidney failure.

T cells (orange) engage with cancer cells (blue). Halle Borowski, an artist and senior at the College of William and Mary, worked with Drs. Mary Philip and Jess Roetman to create this oil painting, inspired by their research, as part of the Vanderbilt Institute for Infection, Immunology, and Inflammation (VI4) Artist-in-Residence program (https://www.artlab-air.com/).

Tumor antigens key to improving cancer immunotherapy: study

Nov. 17, 2023—Vanderbilt researchers are working to better design immune therapies that attack tumors without also attacking healthy normal tissue in patients.

Nasty microbe H. pylori has Achilles’ heel

Nov. 16, 2023—Vanderbilt researchers found that an H. pylori enzyme is essential for colonization of the stomach, suggesting it as a promising therapeutic target for H. pylori infection.

Mark Denison, MD, and Xiaotao Lu, MS, are among those on a new list of scientists whose papers have been cited the most frequently by other researchers. (photo by Erin O. Smith)

Twelve at Vanderbilt are among world’s highly cited researchers

Nov. 15, 2023—Twelve current investigators at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Vanderbilt University are on this year’s list of scientists whose papers have been cited the most frequently by other researchers.

A C. diff bacterium (green) with iron particles in red, shown in a reconstructed electron tomogram from STEM-EDS. (image courtesy of James McBride)

Novel C. diff structures are required for infection, offer new therapeutic targets

Nov. 15, 2023—Vanderbilt research discovers that iron storage “spheres” inside the bacterium C. diff — the leading cause of hospital-acquired infections — are important for infection in an animal model and could offer new targets for antibacterial drugs.

Most can lower blood pressure by reducing salt, even those on BP drugs: study

Nov. 13, 2023—New research shows nearly everyone can lower their blood pressure, even people currently on blood pressure- reducing drugs, by lowering their sodium intake.

Nancy Cox, PhD, receives the American Society of Human Genetics Leadership Award from ASHG president Brendan Lee, MD, PhD. Photo courtesy of ASHG.

After 40 years, genetics still surprises VUMC’s Nancy Cox

Nov. 10, 2023—As she looks back on her 40-plus year career, what surprises Nancy Cox, PhD, an internationally known geneticist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, is how much progress has been made, and yet how much more there is to learn about the role genetic variation plays in human disease.