Science (journal)

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January 7, 2026

Study identifies potential target for blood cancer treatment, prevention

The findings could lead to new treatments for blood cancers, which kill an estimated 23,540 people in the United States every year.

By Bill Snyder
October 30, 2025

Genetic variation impact scores: A new tool for earlier heart disease detection

The study will go a long way to improving the early diagnosis and treatment of familial hypercholesterolemia, a common genetic driver of cardiovascular disease.

By Bill Snyder
April 1, 2025

Castiglione lab discovers horses run faster by ignoring an ancient mutation that says ‘stop’

How did horses overcome this challenge? The answer seems to be by using a genetic trick previously thought to occur only in viruses.

By Andy Flick
October 21, 2021

Study links genetic variants, protein expression and human diseases

An international research team has developed a new resource that connects genetic variants and protein expression, which is expected to speed the identification of genes that cause disease — and point to novel treatment strategies.

By Leigh MacMillan
Mariana Byndloss, DVM, PhD, Woongjae Yoo, PhD, and colleagues are studying how a high-fat diet may contribute to heart disease. (Photo taken prior to revised masking guidelines.)
August 12, 2021

Study reveals missing link between high-fat diet, microbiota and heart disease

A high-fat diet disrupts the biology of the gut’s inner lining and its microbial communities — and promotes the production of a metabolite that may contribute to heart disease, according to a study published Aug. 13 in the journal Science.

By Leigh MacMillan
July 9, 2020

VUMC’s Byndloss recognized for microbiome research

Mariana Byndloss, DVM, PhD, assistant professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, has been selected as a runner-up of the inaugural NOSTER & Science Microbiome Prize.

By Leigh MacMillan
December 5, 2019

Study reveals mysteries of critical brain receptor complex

Poorly functioning AMPARs have been linked to a wide range of neurological and psychiatric disorders including seizures, Alzheimer’s disease, major depression and autism spectrum disorder. Understanding how AMPARs are formed and operate is essential for the rational design of pharmacological compounds that, by tuning AMPAR activity up or down, could improve treatment of these conditions.
By Bill Snyder
November 14, 2019

Blueprint for treating epilepsy

Structural details of a protein that is essential to normal brain function could improve treatments for epilepsy and other seizure disorders.
By Bill Snyder
May 29, 2019

Study details regulation of a multi-drug transporter

P-glycoprotein distinguishes between chemicals that it will expel from a cell and inhibitors that block its action.
By Leigh MacMillan
January 3, 2019

Vanderbilt experts discuss potential of universal genetic database to balance privacy, law enforcement concerns

The pivotal role that long distance familial genetic searches played in the apprehension of the notorious Golden State Killer — and as a tool in dozens more cases since — has led experts from Vanderbilt University and Vanderbilt University Medical Center to make a provocative proposal about how investigative use of DNA should be regulated.
By Holly Fletcher
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
March 15, 2018

Study spots undiagnosed genetic diseases in EHR

Patients diagnosed with heart failure, stroke, infertility and kidney failure could actually be suffering from rare and undiagnosed genetic diseases.
By Craig Boerner
February 23, 2017

Team identifies ‘switch’ involved in DNA replication  

DNA replication is an extraordinarily complex multi-step process that makes copies of the body’s genetic blueprint. It is necessary for growth and essential to life. Now researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and Vanderbilt University have found evidence that one of those steps may involve the telephone-like transmission of electrical signals regulated by a chemical “switch.”
By Bill Snyder
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