Ayaka Sugiura, PhD, and Camille Wang, aspiring physician-scientists in the Medical Scientist Training Program at Vanderbilt, are among this year’s recipients of highly competitive P.E.O. Scholar Awards.

Joseph Magliocca, MD, has been named director of the Vanderbilt Transplant Center and surgical director of the Pediatric Liver Transplant Program.

Paul Harris, PhD, has been appointed to a new role as Vice President for Research Informatics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

A case study of a rare disorder uncovers roles for the protein dysbindin in the adaptive immune response and suggests that mutations may underlie some cases of very early onset inflammatory bowel disease.

Dietary magnesium depletion in a mouse model activated inflammatory pathways and molecules that promote hypertension, suggesting that increased magnesium consumption may be beneficial for reducing the prevalence of hypertension.

Hepatic stellate cells maintain liver mass and function; the signaling factors they use could be exploited therapeutically to promote liver regeneration and inhibit cancerous proliferation, Vanderbilt researchers suggest.