Research
Good chemistry: how chemistry students expand their skill set through hands-on, experiential learning
Jul. 15, 2025—This past academic year, seven graduate students and one undergraduate student participated in the 2025 Merck Compound Challenge. Created in 2018, the competition gives teams from around the world 48 hours to create a proposed route of chemical steps f...
Vanderbilt biologist receives $1.3M Keck grant to study what birds’ longevity could mean for human aging
Jul. 15, 2025—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 g...
Nanobody hitchhikers boost immunotherapy potency in cancer treatment
Jul. 9, 2025—A collaboration among VUMC, the College of Arts and Science, the School of Medicine and the School of Engineering has led to some higher-order “hitchhikers” that can make immunotherapy cancer treatments more effective. Associate Professor John Wilson’s...
Good chemistry: how chemistry students expand their skill set through hands-on, experiential learning
Jul. 9, 2025—Whether you talk to a graduate or undergraduate student in the Department of Chemistry about why they study the field, their responses all evoke the same sentiment: a curiosity for the world and a desire to discover the unknown. All students can fulfill this desire by attending classes and learning from knowledgeable faculty members. However,...
Quantum Potential Podcast Episode 9: How stories spark change with Amanda Little
Jun. 23, 2025—In this episode of Quantum Potential, Amanda Little, writer-in-residence at Vanderbilt’s College of Arts and Science, joins Provost C. Cybele Raver to discuss how journalism can highlight the tipping points humanity faces and how people-first storytell...
Vanderbilt postdoctoral fellows recognized at 2025 Spring Postdoc Awards Ceremony
Jun. 16, 2025—The Office of Postdoctoral Affairs, in partnership with the Vanderbilt Postdoctoral Association, announced the 2025 award winners at the Spring Postdoc Awards Ceremony on May 21. The event highlighted the vital contributions that postdocs make across v...
Scientists discover new evidence of intermediate-mass black holes
Jun. 11, 2025—While we know that intermediate-mass black holes should exist, little is known about their origins or characteristics—they are considered the rare “missing links” in black hole evolution. However, four new studies have shed new light on the mystery. Th...
A Conservative Defense: Downstream NFLs resist evolutionary blitzes
Jun. 11, 2025—Danial Asgari, a postdoctoral researcher in the Tate Lab, and Ann Tate, associate professor of Biological Sciences, recently published a study in Molecular Biology and Evolution titled “How the Structure of Signaling Regulation Evolves: Insights from a...
New research offers promise for treatment-resistant cystic fibrosis patients
Jun. 11, 2025—A recent study from the labs of Lars Plate and Jens Meiler, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, analyzed both selectively responsive and poorly responsive variants of cystic fibrosis and rev...
Vanderbilt’s Evolutionary Studies Initiative honored with 2025 Friend of Darwin Award
Jun. 9, 2025—The National Center for Science Education has named Vanderbilt University’s Evolutionary Studies Initiative as one of its 2025 recipients of the prestigious Friend of Darwin award. This national honor recognizes ESI’s outstanding contributions to advan...