Research News

Pet parrots often outlive their owners, and Vanderbilt researchers want to know why—because uncovering the biological mechanisms behind exceptional longevity could one day help safely extend the lives of humans. With the support of a new $1.3 million grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation, Vanderbilt biologist Gianni Castiglione is taking a bold approach to aging research: reverse-engineering how birds live three to four times longer than similarly sized mammals to identify safe, effective genetic targets for human aging therapies. Read More

Padma Raghavan has been appointed to the newly created role of chancellor’s executive director for science and technology strategy, reporting directly to Chancellor Daniel Diermeier, beginning July 1. The move underscores Vanderbilt’s commitment to accelerating its impact in research and innovation at the national and global levels. Read More

The trial, which is funded by a K23 Career Development Award from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, is expected to begin this summer and will assign peer-parent coaches to families to determine whether their having support to navigate the medical system and other challenges means their children will be healthier.   Read More

At Vanderbilt, people with autism aren’t only research subjects—they are key drivers of scientific discovery. Vanderbilt’s autism research centers and academic programs have fostered a collaborative ecosystem where neurodiverse scholars and scientists can thrive and bring their unique perspectives and abilities to bear on complex research challenges. Read More

Internal grant programs at Vanderbilt—developed by Chancellor Daniel Diermeier, Provost C. Cybele Raver and Vice Provost for Research and Innovation and Chief Research Officer Padma Raghavan—are accelerating discovery of solutions for real-world challenges. Read More

Vanderbilt University and its Center for Technology Transfer and Commercialization hosted the inaugural Southeast Venture Showcase, a first-of-its kind collaboration among top research universities and federal laboratories across the Southeast to highlight their most promising new technology-based ventures.  Read More

Bennett Landman who holds a Stevenson Chair, has more than 2,000 collaborations globally that look at all sorts of different diseases, from the head down to the shins. But the heart of his work remains medicine and the promise of a world where AI-driven imaging leads to earlier diagnoses and better patient outcomes. Read More

Vanderbilt University is launching the Provost Discovery Bridge Funding Program to provide short-term financial support ranging from three to six months to faculty researchers affected by stop work or termination orders for research they were doing with federal support. Read More

A three-year read-and-publish agreement between Oxford University Press and the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries is elevating the visibility and impact of Vanderbilt University research by expanding access to OUP’s broad portfolio of academic journals. Under the agreement, which is effective through 2026, Vanderbilt-affiliated authors can publish open access in hundreds of OUP’s hybrid journals without incurring article processing charges. Read More

The lab of Hassane Mchaourab, director of the Center for Applied Artificial Intelligence in Protein Dynamics and professor of molecular physiology and biophysics, has developed a methodological blueprint that couples experimental double electron–electron resonance spectroscopy with an AI approach to help describe the conformational landscapes of a diverse spectrum of cell membrane transporters. Read More

Vanderbilt University secured four National Endowment for the Humanities grants totaling $330,696 to support projects ranging from Yiddish literature to the preservation of Special Collections. The grants highlight Vanderbilt’s leadership in humanities research and were facilitated by the university’s Research Development and Support team. Read More

Vanderbilt's Spring 2024 Scaling Success Grant awards support four innovative research projects, empowering faculty to secure expanded external funding. The grant program, initiated in 2022, has already helped its inaugural awardees obtain prestigious grants. Read More

Vanderbilt Department of Computer Science researchers Kevin Leach and James Weimer have won a $2 million award from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health to develop technology aimed at improving software security in medical devices like insulin pumps, pacemakers and stroke predictors. This is the first award Vanderbilt has received from ARPA-H, an agency within the National Institutes of Health with a mission to support “high-impact” solutions for pressing health care needs. Read More

Clintoria Williams, associate professor in the Department of Neuroscience, Cell Biology and Physiology at Wright State University, has received the John F. Perkins, Jr. Research Career Enhancement Award from the American Physiological Society. This will enable her to join Vanderbilt as a visiting scholar in the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics for four months to collaborate more closely with Antentor Hinton Jr., assistant professor in the department. Read More

In support of its commitment to fighting health inequities, Vanderbilt University School of Nursing has launched an ambitious campaign to raise and match $1 million to support health disparity research. Dean Pamela Jeffries recently announced the school’s Nursing Health Equity Fellowship program, setting aside $1 million for health equity research at the school and asking VUSN supporters to make a 1:1 philanthropic match to fund this critical research. Read More

Tucked behind the 6 Magnolia Building on Vanderbilt’s Peabody Campus is what might look to some like a lush garden of weeds. In reality, it’s a strategic Native Meadow full of pollinator-friendly plants. Since its inception, the meadow has flourished, and many faculty, staff and students have found ways to collaborate and interact with the space, thought of as a ‘living lab.’ Read More

Americans saw an uptick in unity for the first time in over a year, with widespread agreement that the U.S. political system needs to be more responsive and an overall distrust of social media influencers, according to the most recent Vanderbilt Unity Poll measuring Americans' views of national unity and the democratic process. Read More

NERL, a consortium representing some of America’s leading research institutions, and Springer Nature, a global leader in research publishing, have agreed to a new three-year open publishing agreement. The deal provides seven NERL member institutions—including Vanderbilt University—with read access to the entire corpus of Springer journals and permits eligible authors to publish open access, with fees covered, in hybrid journals across the Springer portfolio. Read More

The researchers, including Vanderbilt’s team led by Kari Hoffman, focused their efforts on the detection of hippocampal ripples, which are considered biomarkers of memory and are affected by epilepsy and Alzheimer’s disease. Read More