Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ

A novel hormone deficiency may exist in humans, Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ investigators have discovered. In an analysis of two decades worth of electronic health records, the researchers found that some patients have unexpectedly low levels of natriuretic peptide hormone in clinical situations that should cause high levels of the hormone.

Assistant Professor of History of Art Rebecca VanDiver focuses her research on African American artists—particularly Black female artists of the 20th century. In the classroom, she presents art history not only as a discipline that allows for a study of the history of artistic movements and style, but also as a lens to study culture and history. Read More

Men’s health across Tennessee is trending toward improvement, according to the 2020 Tennessee Men’s Health Report Card, but racial and geographic disparities persist. The report card is compiled by Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ’s Center for Research on Men’s Health in cooperation with Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Medical Center, the Tennessee Department of Health, Meharry Medical College and the Tennessee Men’s Health Network. Read More

Psychiatry Advisor spoke with VUSN professor Susan (Susie) Adams, PhD, PMHNP-BC, FAANP, FAAN, recently as she co-authored a paper regarding the role of primary care providers in suicide prevention during the pandemic.

A probiotic factor given early in life to mice prevented intestinal inflammation in adulthood, providing a rationale for probiotic intervention in individuals at high risk of developing inflammatory bowel disease.

Disrupting the action of glucagon — a pancreatic hormone that works to raise blood glucose — restores functional insulin-producing cells in mouse models of type 1 diabetes and may be a promising treatment strategy.

Allison Schachter, an associate professor of Jewish studies, English, and Russian and East European studies, developed a new theory about the role of women who made lasting and meaningful contributions to Jewish culture and history in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Blythe Corbett, PhD, professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and investigator with the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Kennedy Center, recently led a study which found that on average, females with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experienced the onset of puberty 9.5 months earlier than their peers.

Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ researchers have linked bone-related complications of severely injured patients — findings that could help minimize these complications.

In patients with glioblastoma brain tumors, features detected on MRIs at diagnosis were associated with survival, Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Medical Center investigators found.

Sabine Fuhrmann and colleagues have discovered a novel underlying cause of coloboma — a birth defect that causes missing tissue in the eye and accounts for up to 10% of childhood blindness.

Genetic variation that impacts glucose- and insulin-related signaling affects responses to type 2 diabetes treatments and warrants further study.

Laboratory and administrative personnel at Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Medical Center were honored last week for research excellence during the 17th annual Research Staff Awards, held virtually this year because of the pandemic.

Valeria Reyes Ruiz, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, has been selected as a 2020 Hanna Gray Fellow by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI).

Delirium, a form of acute brain dysfunction, is widespread in critically ill patients in lower resourced hospitals, and the duration of delirium predicted both mortality and disability at six months after discharge, according to a study published in PLOS ONE.

Wei-Qi Wei, MD, PhD, assistant professor of Biomedical Informatics and scientific director of the Precision Phenotyping Core at the Center for Precision Medicine, has been awarded a four-year, $1.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to continue development of high-throughput software for quickly identifying traits of interest, or phenotypes, in electronic health records (EHRs).

Retrieval of clearer, more complete information from the EHR could go a long way toward improving predictive models of who will next be at risk of suicide, thereby improving care for patients with suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

A noninvasive, quantitative MRI method could be used after surgical repair of traumatic peripheral nerve injury to help clinicians make decisions about whether additional surgical interventions are needed.

HIV-1, the virus that causes AIDS, exploits inositol phosphates in T cells to aid its own assembly and maturation — suggesting that targeting inositol phosphate binding could inhibit HIV-1 replication.

Insight into the pathophysiology of an enigmatic and debilitating disease suggests new treatment approaches.