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Schizophrenia has been proven to be heritable, but typical analyses so far haven’t been able to pinpoint what, genetically, is going wrong in the brain. A new paper by Professor Bingshan Li and research instructor Rui Chen outlines how to improve on existing genetic screening for schizophrenia risk by expanding the areas of the chromosome scanned for genetic signals. Their results point to a “tangible biological pathway—and potential treatment target—linking genetic risk to the pathogenesis of schizophrenia,” Chen said.

Shan Meltzer has been awarded a prestigious Edward Mallinckrodt, Jr. Foundation Award to advance her pioneering research that seeks to determine how the body’s sensory circuits form and function. Her work seeks to answer a fundamental question in neuroscience: how do the brain and spinal cord organize their intricate networks to perform such a wide range of functions?

At Vanderbilt, research doesn’t just live in the lab. It moves into the world in the shape of new tools, treatments and technologies that improve lives, support communities and expand what’s possible. Read More

Wolters Kluwer Health and Vanderbilt University’s Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries have announced a new collaboration that will help support medical breakthroughs and improve access to scholarly research. The agreement, which is an expansion of Wolters Kluwer’s read-and-publish offerings in North America, will run through 2028.

Since the inception of the Ancora Innovations partnership in 2018, Vanderbilt and Deerfield Management have enjoyed a robust collaboration. Deerfield’s commitment includes significant support for advancing translational research and sponsorship of various events across Vanderbilt University and Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Recently, key members of Deerfield's leadership team spent two days at Vanderbilt to engage faculty in discussions about potential projects of mutual interest.  Read More

şüŔęĘÓƵ SPARK: Learn a key tool new faculty leader Kristina Thomas Dreifuerst is using to prepare the next generation of nurses. Read More

The role of artificial intelligence in drug discovery has been limited by machine learning methods that fail when they encounter chemical structures they weren’t “trained” on. Assistant Professor Benjamin Brown has written a paper suggesting a more targeted approach: using a task-specific model architecture that’s intentionally restricted to learn from a representation of the interaction space between a protein and a drug molecule and be better able to generalize and figure out which compound might best interact with that protein. That’s important, because identifying those compounds early cuts the costs and time involved in developing drugs.

Health inequity is one of the greatest problems facing people across the U.S., and the School of Nursing Health Equity Faculty Fellows program is designed to fight it. “I am confident that the work of our Faculty Fellows will both find solutions and inspire further research that addresses the very real issues faced by our communities,” Dean Pamela R. Jeffries said. This year’s cohort of six scholars, and their research projects, were announced late last month.

Advanced melanoma can be notoriously resistant to standard immunotherapy, but a new drug combination might hold some hope for patients with this most common form of skin cancer. Professor Emerita of Pharmacology Ann Richmond and her team, in preclinical work, created a “tumor microenvironment more receptive to immune challenge.” The treatment slowed tumor growth, showed stronger immune responses and increased helpful T cells. It could be on a faster-than-typical track to human studies because all the drugs are already involved in other clinical trials.

Gastroesophageal reflux disease, or GERD, plagues millions of people. Vanderbilt researchers led by Assistant Professor Xiaoguang Dong have developed a soft robotic valve that can seal off the lower esophagus from the stomach, keeping gastric acid where it belongs. Then when the patient eats or drinks, the valve, which is implanted in concert with a stent, can be opened with a wearable external magnet. “This platform holds promise not only for treating GERD, but also for managing other sphincter-related disorders,” said co-author and Assistant Professor Yuxiao Zhou.

Three leaders in health policy, informatics and cancer research from Vanderbilt University Medical Center have been elected this year to membership in the National Academy of Medicine, a preeminent advisory body on critical matters of health care, medicine and public health.

Ointments like Neosporin contain the antibiotic neomycin, which works great to kill bacteria on the outside of the body when you scrape your knee or have a hangnail. But inside the body, neomycin does more harm than good—kidney and neurological damage and deafness. Research Assistant Professor Bhawik Jain and colleagues in his lab have figured out why that is, and how to stop it. This could make neomycin another tool in the fight against antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Kathleen DelGiorno, assistant professor of cell and developmental biology, has received a Research Scholar Award from the American Cancer Society. The award will fund research into potential therapies against pancreatic cancer, the third-leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States, which is forecast to become the second-leading cause by 2030.

Vanderbilt researchers, including those from the Vanderbilt Brain Institute, have made significant strides in understanding how the enteric nervous system—sometimes called the “brain” of the gut—forms and functions.

Jack Noble, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, is working with clinical colleagues to develop and validate an augmented reality vision guidance system to help surgeons place cochlear implants more precisely. The guidance system leverages emerging artificial intelligence technology and uses inexpensive, commonly available equipment, making it practical for many operating rooms.

When we think of the age-old adage about getting old, “What new ache or pain will each new day bring?” we often imagine ailments such as joint or bone pain, a hyperactive bladder, or even memory loss, but Kevin Schey, Stevenson Professor of Biochemistry at the School of Medicine Basic Sciences, thinks a lot about the loss of eyesight.

Ultra-thin layers of gold and copper sulfide developed by Vanderbilt doctoral student Yueming Yan with Associate Professor of Chemistry Janet Macdonald and Stevenson Professor of Physics Richard Haglund could revolutionize medical imaging and environmental sensing. The energy exchange between the metal and semiconductor particles—resonant energy transfer—can convert infrared light into visible and ultraviolet colors. The nanoscale films "could replace bulky optical sensors with flexible, wearable or even implantable devices, thus transforming health and safety technologies."

The Vanderbilt Biophotonics Center, led by Professor Anita Mahadevan-Jansen, developed a device called the PTeye that can help surgeons see patients' parathyroid glands—which have unpredictable locations—better during neck surgery by making the tissue glow! A large, multicenter clinical trial has provided evidence of its effectiveness, which the team hopes will improve the accuracy of endocrine neck surgery and improve patient outcomes. Clinical implementation of the device was pioneered by Dr. Carmen Solórzano, director of Vanderbilt Endocrine Surgery at VUMC.

Three Vanderbilt faculty members are diving into a "chicken-and-egg" problem of type 2 diabetes: Does the disease change beta-cell subtypes? Or do changes in the cells cause diabetes? Guoqiang Gu, Emily Hodges and Ken Lau have come up with a new method of studying the subtypes that can track them through different stages instead of just once when they're fully developed. "Thanks to this and other research, it may be possible to one day create a diet supplement for pregnancy that could reduce the risk of diabetes for babies," Gu said.

In a scientific first, researchers from Vanderbilt University and the University of California, San Diego, have generated a high-resolution metabolic “map” of how cells orchestrate glucose processing, revealing a hidden world where organelles and molecular complexes collaborate when responding to a rush of nutrients. This new study, published in Nature Communications, has redefined how glucose metabolism is visualized at the single-cell level.