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Vanderbilt School of Medicine Basic Sciences
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Another potential #schizophrenia treatment developed at Vanderbilt in the Warren Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery has entered a Phase I trial, marking the second such schizophrenia drug candidate from the center to reach this milestone. Read more 👉 medschool.vanderbilt.edu/basic-scienc...
Second schizophrenia treatment discovered at Vanderbilt’s Warren Center enters Phase I clinical trial
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November 13, 2025 at 10:30 PM
✨ New research from Vanderbilt University Medical Center identified a new genetic marker that may significantly improve the ability to predict life-threatening reactions to the gout medication allopurinol in U.S. patients.

Read more 👉 news.vumc.org/2025/10/29/n...
New genetic marker found to predict severe gout drug reactions in US patients
A newly identified genetic marker may help predict life-threatening reactions to the gout medication allopurinol.
news.vumc.org
November 5, 2025 at 4:15 PM
🧠 A new technique has been developed that digs deeper into the genetic roots of schizophrenia, beyond the usual “strongest” genetic signals.This discovery opens up fresh avenues for treatment, ones that protect and repair how brain cells connect. Read more 👉 medschool.vanderbilt.edu/basic-scienc...
New technique pioneered at Vanderbilt can identify new risk genes for schizophrenia
Bingshan Li and his lab are changing the paradigm of how geneticists can identify risk genes for schizophrenia, enabling new studies into its underlying biology and opening new doors for the develo…
medschool.vanderbilt.edu
November 4, 2025 at 5:45 PM
🎉 Big congratulations to three members of our community—Megan Altemus, Mayme Van Meveren, and Yilin Yang—who were recognized at this year's Vanderbilt Fall Staff Assembly for outstanding impact and innovation.

Join us in congratulating them! news.vanderbilt.edu/2025/10/30/2...
2025 Fall Staff Assembly honors individuals and teams for excellence in leadership and innovation
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…
news.vanderbilt.edu
November 3, 2025 at 8:25 PM
🧬 🪦 Dean emeritus Larry Marnett, Mike Goodman (staff scientist in the Sanders lab), and senior advisor to the dean Chuck Sanders paid their annual visit to the grave of Oswald Avery, the scientist “best known for his discovery that DNA serves as genetic material.
profiles.nlm.nih.gov/spotlight/cc
November 1, 2025 at 5:15 PM
👻 Happy Halloween! What looks like a haunting group of glowing ghosts is actually a Drosophila (fruit fly) pupal notum — a sheet of cells captured with scattered spots expressing a GFP-tagged microtubule minus-end binding protein, Patronin.

📸: Pankajam Thyagarajan, postdoc in the Page-McCaw lab
October 31, 2025 at 5:08 PM
✨ 🔬 Shan Meltzer has been awarded the prestigious Edward Mallinckrodt, Jr. Foundation Award to investigate how our sense of #touch and #pain develops. By uncovering these processes, Meltzer aims to develop new strategies to treat sensory disorders. medschool.vanderbilt.edu/basic-scienc...
Pharmacologist Shan Meltzer receives Edward Mallinckrodt, Jr. Foundation Award to uncover how our sense of touch and pain develops
Shan Meltzer has been awarded a prestigious Edward Mallinckrodt, Jr. Foundation Award to advance her pioneering research on determining how the body’s sensory circuits form and function. Meltzer’s …
medschool.vanderbilt.edu
October 26, 2025 at 6:30 PM
💛 Your pride looks good in Vandyprint! When you make a gift to the School of Medicine Basic Sciences by Nov. 9, you’ll get a limited-edition thank-you gift to show our appreciation. Every contribution helps support our community!
Fall Incentive 2025
Join me and make a gift to Vanderbilt
give.vanderbilt.edu
October 25, 2025 at 7:15 PM
🎉 Congratulations to the faculty members in our school on their recent appointments and promotions! These individuals significantly enrich our pursuit of pathbreaking research and contribute to the growth and success of our school. 👏🏻👏🏼👏🏽👏🏾👏🏿 medschool.vanderbilt.edu/basic-scienc...
Celebrating appointments and promotions in the School of Medicine Basic Sciences: July–September 2025
Congratulations to our School of Medicine Basic Sciences faculty members who were promoted or received new appointments between July and September 2025. These individuals significantly enrich our p…
medschool.vanderbilt.edu
October 25, 2025 at 3:45 AM
🎃 Halloween is right around the corner and every year, Chuck Sanders sits down with a very special guest...This Halloween, his annual eerie interview features none other than Maud Menten, co-creator of the legendary Michaelis-Menten enzyme kinetics. 🧪 medschool.vanderbilt.edu/basic-scienc...
A Halloween interview with Maud Menten
Tune in to Professor of Biochemistry Chuck Sanders' yearly Halloween interview, this year featuring Maud Menten, co-creator of the Michaelis-Menten enzyme kinetics equation.
medschool.vanderbilt.edu
October 23, 2025 at 8:07 PM
🎓👏 Join us in honoring dean emeritus Larry Marnett, whose five decades of dedication to science, leadership, and mentorship was highlighted during a reunion of 70+ former trainees from around the globe.

Read more about this tribute 👉 medschool.vanderbilt.edu/basic-scienc...
From Lab to Legacy: Marnett’s Trainees Gather to Toast a Life in Science and Service
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–…
medschool.vanderbilt.edu
October 22, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Some of our leaders attended the 2025 Biomedical Research Training Conference, hosted by the Association of American Medical Colleges’ Group on Research, Education and Training. They shared Vanderbilt's innovative approaches to trainee recruiting, mentoring, and more! 👉 news.vumc.org/2025/10/08/v...
Vanderbilt leaders in filling the biomedical research pipeline shine at national meeting
VUSM played a major role in a national conference that showcased the critical need to train biomedical researchers to advance medical care.
news.vumc.org
October 21, 2025 at 5:30 PM
💊 Vanderbilt scientists, led by Ann Richmond, have discovered a new drug combination that targets three key pathways, helping melanoma tumors once resistant to immunotherapy respond again to the body’s immune defenses.

Read more 👉 medschool.vanderbilt.edu/basic-scienc...
Promising new drug combination may help melanoma patients resistant to treatment respond once again to the body’s immune defenses
Vanderbilt researchers led by Ann Richmond have identified a promising drug combination that targets three key pathways in advanced melanoma, potentially restoring the immune response in patients r…
medschool.vanderbilt.edu
October 19, 2025 at 5:30 PM
🎓 Meet one of our alums, Chase Spurlock, PhD ’14! Today, he is CEO and co-founder of Decode Health, and also serves as an adjunct professor at Vanderbilt, NYU, and Belmont’s medical school.

Read his full Q&A here 👉 medschool.vanderbilt.edu/basic-scienc...
Alum Answers with Chase Spurlock
A Middle Tennessee native, Chase Spurlock, PhD’14, was drawn to Vanderbilt University for its excellence in healthcare and science. A project he completed in graduate school ignited in him a desire…
medschool.vanderbilt.edu
October 18, 2025 at 4:50 PM
💻 Ben Brown takes on one of the biggest roadblocks to using AI in this field: how to accurately model the complex interactions between drugs and their protein targets. Learn more about his new targeted approach 👉
Vanderbilt scientist tackles key roadblock for AI in drug discovery
Vanderbilt’s Dr. Benjamin P. Brown is improving the way the field of drug discovery creates machine learning algorithms to predict a protein’s interactions with a small molecule. These improvements…
medschool.vanderbilt.edu
October 17, 2025 at 4:09 PM
🧬 Few genes wield as much power or mystery as MYC, a key driver of #cancer cell growth and survival. Stephen Fesik and William Tansey are uncovering how MYC reprograms cells and why it’s one of the most challenging yet promising targets in oncology. 👉 medschool.vanderbilt.edu/basic-scienc...
The emperor of all oncogenes
Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology William Tansey and Professor of Biochemistry Stephen Fesik are rewriting the playbook for defeating cancer. After ten years of research, the two School o…
medschool.vanderbilt.edu
October 16, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Reposted by Vanderbilt School of Medicine Basic Sciences
With a new collaboration called diffUSE, the @stephanieaw.bsky.social lab is helping to advance our understanding of protein motion, leading to a new paradigm in dynamic structural biology.
@vubasicsciences.bsky.social
medschool.vanderbilt.edu/basic-scienc...
September 26, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Big discoveries start with support. 💛 When you give to Vanderbilt by Nov. 9, you’re helping our researchers and trainees push discovery further. And as a thank-you, you can choose a limited-edition Vandyprint item. ⚓✨https://give.vanderbilt.edu/fall-incentive-2025/?a=10853854
Fall Incentive 2025
Join me and make a gift to Vanderbilt
Vu.edu
October 14, 2025 at 7:40 PM
💉 Vanderbilt researchers, including Todd Graham of CDB, have figured out how to make the topical antibiotic neomycin safe for injection. This innovation could reduce harmful side effects and help fight antibiotic resistance. 👉 as.vanderbilt.edu/news/2025/09...
Researchers discover method to make traditional topical antibiotic safe to inject, potentially reducing antibiotic resistance
After scraping your knee or getting cut by an errant tree branch, you likely slathered your injury with the antibiotic ointment Neosporin. Widely used to prevent infection, one of the active…
as.vanderbilt.edu
October 12, 2025 at 7:30 PM
🌟 Meet Hannah Waterman, a trainee in the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics. Her advice for future trainees? "It is okay to ask for guidance from mentors, lean on colleagues, and trust that collaboration makes research stronger." medschool.vanderbilt.edu/basic-scienc...
Trainee Tribute: Hannah Waterman
Meet Hannah Waterman, a fifth year Ph.D. candidate in the lab of Alan Cherrington in the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics.
medschool.vanderbilt.edu
October 11, 2025 at 5:10 PM
🌟 Meet David Stiles who works for our finance team. He’s passionate about mentoring new team members, improving departmental processes, and streamlining post-award finance workflows.

Learn more about David 👉 medschool.vanderbilt.edu/basic-scienc...
School of Medicine Basic Sciences Staff Spotlight: David Stiles
Meet David Stiles, a senior financial analyst for the School of Medicine Basic Sciences.
medschool.vanderbilt.edu
October 10, 2025 at 4:15 PM
🔬 Introducing TrueSpot, a new algorithmic tool that’s poised to revolutionize microscopy image analysis across biology and medicine. Developed in Gregor Neuert’s lab, TrueSpot automates detection and quantification of fluorescent “spots” in 2D & 3D images. medschool.vanderbilt.edu/basic-scienc...
New algorithmic tool can improve microscopy image analysis, making improvements across fields
A new image analysis tool called TrueSpot has the capacity to overhaul the quantity and quality of usable data that can be obtained from fluorescence microscopy, which is used across an enormous ra…
medschool.vanderbilt.edu
October 9, 2025 at 4:15 PM
🔬 Proteins morph and respond to their environment in ways we’re only beginning to understand. A new collaborative project called diffUSE will advance our understanding of protein motion, reshaping how we study disease, drug design, and protein function. medschool.vanderbilt.edu/basic-scienc...
Beyond the fold: From single snapshots to shapeshifting proteins
Started in June 2025, a new collaborative science project called diffUSE involving Vanderbilt University, Cornell University, and the University of California, San Francisco, could be the next wate…
medschool.vanderbilt.edu
October 8, 2025 at 3:45 PM
🗓️ How do academic discoveries become real-world therapies? You are invited to connect with the Deerfield Management Discovery and Development team to learn how our Ancora Innovations partnership helps accelerate translational research and fuel new biotech ventures. cttc.co/events/20251...
Introduction to Deerfield
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October 7, 2025 at 7:55 PM
🎉 Congratulations to Prashant Donthamsetti on receiving the prestigious NIH Director's Pioneer Award to push forward research into next-generation strategies for understanding and treating addiction.

Read more 👉 medschool.vanderbilt.edu/basic-scienc...
Prashant Donthamsetti wins prestigious NIH pioneer award to advance addiction research
Prashant Donthamsetti has received a prestigious NIH Director’s Pioneer Award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. His project will use a new platform called Tag-Guided Drug to uncover how sp…
medschool.vanderbilt.edu
October 4, 2025 at 5:15 PM