News

Oct. 30, 2025—Chancellor Daniel Diermeier and Vice Chancellor of People, Culture and Belonging Sydney Savion presented awards at the 2025 Fall Staff Assembly to a mix of inspiring individuals and teams who have made significant contributions through their community engagement, research and service.

Oct. 28, 2025—Vanderbilt has been training physician-scientists for more than 60 years. Many graduates have gone on to leadership positions in academia, government, industry and clinical practice. 

Oct. 28, 2025—In a heartwarming tribute to a remarkable career, more than 70 of his former graduate students and postdoctoral scholars recently traveled from across the globe for a three-day festivity on Oct. 3–5 to celebrate Larry Marnett’s 50 years in academia. Marnett is the dean emeritus of the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Basic Sciences, the Mary Geddes Stahlman Professor of Cancer Research, and a university distinguished professor of biochemistry and chemistry.

Oct. 16, 2025—In the hunt for new therapeutics for cancer and infectious diseases, lasso peptides prove to be a catch. Their knot-like structures afford these molecules high stability and diverse biological activities, making them a promising avenue for new therapeutics. To better unleash their clinical potential, a team from the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology developed LassoESM, a new large language model for predicting lasso peptide properties.

Oct. 16, 2025—Cancer has been called “the emperor of all maladies.” Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology William Tansey calls MYC, in turn, “the emperor of all oncogenes.”

Oct. 15, 2025—Jeff Spraggins, director of the Mass Spectrometry Research Center and associate professor of cell and developmental biology, has received a $4 million National Science Foundation Major Research Instrumentation award to develop a groundbreaking molecular imaging system.

Oct. 3, 2025—The lab of Doug Mitchell (Biochemistry) recently reconstituted and characterized a versatile tryptophan halogenase. Improving the field’s understanding of this enzyme brings it a step closer to seeing use as a biocatalytic tool in basic and translational research.

Sep. 25, 2025—Vanderbilt faculty joined United for Medical Research’s MyWHY campaign by answering a simple but powerful question: Why is medical research important to you? Their stories revealed the people, experiences, and motivations behind their work, all while underscoring the role that funding from the National Institutes of Health plays in every breakthrough.

Sep. 25, 2025—The Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center named William Tansey (Cell and Developmental Biology) and Doug Kojetin (Biochemistry) to leadership roles. Tansey will be the associate director for Shared Resources and Kojetin will be co-leader of the Genome Maintenance Research Program.

Sept 8, 2025-A colorectal cancer research team led by Robert Coffey, MD, has received a prestigious Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPORE) grant renewal totaling $12.6 million from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) for a five-year period.

Sep. 11, 2025—Two groups of researchers received the Chancellor’s Award for Research at the 2025 Fall Faculty Assembly. David Cortez (Biochemistry) and Rahul Bhowmick(Biochemistry) published findings that revised long-standing assumptions and provided a more nuanced understanding of maintaining genome stability.

Sep. 11, 2025—A new study from the Douglas Kojetin lab (Biochemistry), led by staff scientist Paola Munoz-Telloby and graduate student Christopher Williams, used NMR to study Pin1–PPARγ binding, advancing insight into Pin1 catalysis and PPARγ regulation.

Aug. 28, 2025—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...

Aug. 5, 2025—Scott Hiebert, Hortense B. Ingram Chair in Cancer Research, professor of biochemistry, and associate professor of medicine, has been named Chief Scientific Officer of the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, effective Aug. 1. Hiebert will retire from Vanderbilt after 28 years of distinguished service.

Aug. 5, 2025—They were part of the Aspirnaut program, which prepares high school and college students, primarily from rural areas, for careers in the STEM fields.

Jul. 23, 2025—If it has seemed like more people you know are developing diabetes, you are right. The diabetes epidemic is not called that for nothing: According to the American Diabetes Association, over 10 percent of the U.S. population—approximately 38.4 million people—had diabetes in 2021, and 1.2 million more people get diagnosed each year.

Jun. 24, 2025—The kidney, a critical organ for waste filtration and fluid regulation, is the subject of a groundbreaking molecular mapping project that could reshape our understanding of renal health. Despite advances in transcriptomics and proteomics, lipids—key structural and signaling molecules—have remained relatively unexplored in the context of kidney function. That is now changing thanks to a new...

Jun. 5, 2025—At the annual research symposium of the Vanderbilt International Researchers Alliance on April 18, the audience was treated not only to groundbreaking science but to first-hand stories of resilience, discovery, and mentorship. Yi Ren, associate professor of biochemistry whose research is transforming our understanding of viral RNA structures, reflected on her path as an international...

Jun. 5, 2025—The laboratory of Emily Hodges, associate professor of biochemistry, has robust experience in epigenetics and chromatin accessibility. A recent paper published in Cell Reports looks at the timing of chromatin accessibility and DNA methylation changes during the process of cell differentiation and how they affect gene expression.

Jun. 3, 2025—A critical strategy to limiting a drug’s toxic side effects is for it to reach only its pathogenic target and nothing else. A group of researchers from the lab of Larry Marnett, the Mary Geddes Stahlman Professor of Cancer Research, recently paired a precisely targeted imaging agent to an anticancer agent and found that they...

May. 1, 2025—Election to the NAS—which was established by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863—recognizes distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. This year, Heidi Hamm (Pharmacology) and Eric Skaar (Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology) were elected members.

May. 1, 2025—Crucial research by Neil Osheroff and his lab leads to approval of the first new class of antibacterial drugs in decades.

May. 1, 2025—Pelayo Correa, MD, professor emeritus of Medicine and Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and John Kuriyan, PhD, dean of the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Basic Sciences, have been elected to the 2025 class of fellows of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Academy.

May. 1, 2025—Doug Mitchell has been appointed the holder of the William Kelly Warren Sr. Chair in Biochemistry and professor chemistry. He has also been named director of the Vanderbilt Institute for Chemical Biology.

Jul. 23, 2024—Katrin Karbstein, PhD, has joined the School of Medicine Basic Sciences as Ingram Professor of Cancer Research and professor of Biochemistry. She has also been appointed co-leader of the cancer cell biology program in the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center.

Jul. 18, 2024—Given the occurrence of tragic accidents and near-misses at research institutions across the country, cultivating a culture of laboratory safety in academic institutions has been a pressing concern for governmental funding agencies. Thanks to a training grant supplement from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences awarded last year, Vanderbilt campus partners collaborated to execute...

Jul. 18, 2024—A team of Vanderbilt researchers has created a new series of drug candidates against a hard-to-target receptor involved in the formation of blood clots. The research, spearheaded by the labs of Jens Meiler, research professor of chemistry, Craig Lindsley, Executive Director of Warren Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery and professor of pharmacology, and Heidi Hamm,...

Jul. 17, 2024—Jeffrey Spraggins, associate professor of cell and developmental biology, biochemistry, and chemistry, has been named director of the Mass Spectrometry Research Center. He succeeds Richard Caprioli, Stanford Moore Chair in Biochemistry, who established the MSRC in 1998 and who is retiring this summer.

Jul. 12, 2024—The Lillian B. Nanney Award for Outstanding Service to the VUSM/VUMC Community of Educators is a lifetime achievement award established to recognize an Academy for Excellence in Education faculty member who has demonstrated sustained outstanding service to the Vanderbilt community of educators. This year’s winner is Neil Osheroff, PhD, John G. Coniglio Professor of Biochemistry and professor...

Jul. 12, 2024—Thirteen outstanding faculty members from across the university have been selected for the 2024 cohort of Chancellor Faculty Fellows. This group is composed of highly accomplished, recently tenured faculty from a wide variety of disciplines and areas of expertise.  

Jul. 12, 2024—Bacteria existed for millennia before humans and have been infecting us from the beginning. Although we can treat infections through pharmaceuticals, bacteria continue to become resistant to treatment thanks to their rapid evolution. Bacterial infections remain a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in 2024, resulting in nearly eight million annual deaths globally. One key...

Jul. 12, 2024—Closely related animal species can look physically different, but you might be surprised to learn that those differences can result not only from DNA sequence changes that alter proteins’ structure or function, but also because changes in the DNA affect how those proteins are expressed. To add to that, not all differences between species can...

Jul. 12, 2024—David Cortez, the Richard N. Armstrong Ph.D. Professor of Innovation in Biochemistry and chair of biochemistry, won The Hans Neurath Award, a 2024 Protein Society Award, for recent contributions of exceptional merit to basic protein research.

Jul. 12, 2024—Jennifer Pietenpol, PhD, Executive Vice President for Research, and chief scientific and strategy officer for Vanderbilt University Medical Center, will be recognized at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) with one of its highest honors.

Jun. 23, 2023—Kimryn Rathmell, MD, PhD, was recently inducted as a American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) fellow for her record of volunteer service, dedication and commitment to the organization.

Jun. 7, 2023—Thirteen outstanding faculty members from across the university have been selected for the 2023 cohort of Chancellor Faculty Fellows. This group is composed of highly accomplished, recently tenured faculty from a wide variety of disciplines and areas of expertise. “As we reflect on the 150th anniversary of our founding, we’re asking our university community to...