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2021 Research in Review
From the more than 3,100 classes offered on campus this semester to the many examples of interdisciplinary research highlighted in the above video, Vanderbilt continues to produce knowledge, rigorous scholarship and solutions to the world’s most pressing problems. This semester alone, Vanderbilt scholars received more than 260 awards from prestigious external sponsors, from Wellcome Leap to the Environmental Protection Agency, resulting in $77.7 million in award funding and a portfolio that positions us for even more game-changing research in the future. As we apply the lessons we have learned from the pandemic, we have an opportunity to expand our thinking, bolster collaboration and make our impact even more legible to the general public. In so doing, we can demonstrate the power of higher education at a pivotal moment for our nation and our Nashville community. MORE
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Vanderbilt extends its longest ongoing drug discovery agreement with pharmaceutical company through 2023
Vanderbilt has extended its longest ongoing drug discovery agreement with Osaka, Japan-based Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., a research and development-oriented pharmaceutical company that is committed to creating innovative medicines in specific areas, through November 2023. The initial agreement was signed in November 2015, and this was its fourth extension. The collaboration is focused on an under-explored family of ion channels and transporters, for which the joint Warren Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery-Ono teams first developed a variety of tests and then tool compounds to validate how altering these ion channels’ preclinical models affects a variety of central nervous system conditions. Armed with validation that the identified ion channels can be modulated, the team aims to discover clinical candidates for potential new therapeutics. MORE
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Classroom observation scores for Tennessee teachers vary by race and gender
New research by the Tennessee Education Research Alliance at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College reveals that Black and male teachers in Tennessee have received lower observation scores than white and female teachers every year since the state’s evaluation system began in 2011. Those gaps among race and gender remain even when comparing similarly qualified teachers who perform the same according to other metrics, such as their value-added to student achievement. [The researchers] examined classroom observation score gaps over time along racial and gender lines using school data from the 2011-12 to 2018-19 school years. Within schools, Black teachers are assigned higher numbers of students with disciplinary histories, who have lower past attendance and who were lower-achieving in the previous year. These differences in students’ characteristics partially explain Black teachers’ lower observation scores, according to researchers. Although the findings point to some of the district and school processes that may produce racial gaps in observation scores, the study also left some of the racial gap unexplained. MORE
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Vanderbilt scientist’s team project wins $55,000 to research fundamental cell behavior
Lars Plate, assistant professor of chemistry and biological sciences, is on a team that won $55,000 from Scialog’s initiative, Chemical Machinery of the Cell. The award—one of 24 granted to 21 researchers in the U.S. and Canada—will enable Plate to pursue collaborative research to advance fundamental understanding of chemical machinery and reactions in intact cells. Dynamic protein-protein interactions govern many processes in molecules, cells and organisms. When these interactions are altered, they can instigate the growth and spread of disease inside the body. Plate’s lab aims to define the dynamics and the coordination of these protein interaction networks in various processes. Toward this goal, Plate has developed new mass spectrometry-based protein and chemical biology tools. By leveraging multidisciplinary approaches to protein biochemistry, enzymology and cell biology, Plate’s research plays a significant role in scientists’ understanding of disease and subsequent drug discovery. MORE
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FEDERALLY FUNDED RESEARCH
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National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense—Study sets framework for precision surveillance of colorectal cancer
A team of Vanderbilt researchers has revealed some of the mechanisms by which polyps develop into colorectal cancer, setting the framework for improved surveillance for the cancer utilizing precision medicine. Their study . . . describes findings from a single-cell transcriptomic and imaging atlas of the two most common colorectal polyps found in humans: conventional adenomas and serrated polyps. They determined that adenomas arise from expansion of stem cells that are driven by activation of WNT signaling, which contributes to the development of cancer, while serrated polyps derive into cancer through a different process called gastric metaplasia. The study provided a number of other findings of clinical significance. For instance, sessile serrated lesions can be challenging to identify, and the study suggest biomarkers that may confirm their diagnosis. The study revealed much about the mechanisms of sessile serrated lesions in regulating the tumor immune landscape. [The research was supported in part by the National Cancer Institute and the Department of Defense.] MORE
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National Institutes of Health—Game theory points to new DNA data privacy solutions
Information based biomedical discovery, in particular the push toward precision medicine, depends on open-ended analysis of de-identified data from patients and research participants on the largest possible scale. Sharing data while controlling the risk of data reidentification under privacy attack is vital to the enterprise. Game theory indicates that only minimal edits are required to protect DNA data against attacks on anonymity, a health information privacy research team reported . . . . Computer scientist Zhiyu Wan, PhD’20, computer science professor Bradley Malin, and colleagues . . . demonstrate a game theoretic method for protecting de-identified genomic data against attacks in which an adversary gathers information from different public sources to triangulate a target’s identity. The paper provides a formal examination of real, as well as simulated, scenarios involving prospective monetary payoffs for the game’s players. The subject’s payoff is optimized by suppressing only enough data to make attacks unprofitable, leaving attackers with no reason to participate. The study was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health. MORE
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Peabody researchers among top in country in new ‘Education Week’ rankings
Education Week released today the 2022 Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings, an annual list of education researchers who have demonstrated the greatest influence over educational policy and practice. Six researchers from Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College of education and human development are among the 200 who made the rankings. That means those chosen are the top 1 percent of the more than 20,000 university-based faculty tackling educational questions in the U.S., according to Frederick M. Hess, director of education policy for the American Enterprise Institute. Hess compiles the data each year. The rankings draw on nine metrics, including social media presence, book and journal publication and citations, education media mentions and number of times cited by members of Congress. MORE
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Poet Nikky Finney to speak at virtual keynote event for 2022 Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Renowned poet, professor and author Nikky Finney will deliver a keynote address as part of Vanderbilt University’s 2022 commemoration honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Finney is scheduled to speak Jan. 17 at 4:30 p.m. CT as part of a broader virtual program that will begin with a vigil and include remarks by Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier. After Finney’s address, Major Jackson, director of creative writing and Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of English, will host a moderated Q&A with the speaker. The virtual event is open to the entire Vanderbilt community, but registration is required. Finney is the author of On Wings Made of Gauze, Rice, The World Is Round and Head Off & Split: Poems, which won the National Book Award for Poetry in 2011. Her newest collection of poems, Love Child’s Hotbed of Occasional Poetry, was published in 2020. MORE
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Bishop Michael Bruce Curry and Jon Meacham to talk religion and politics
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Have Vaccine, Will Travel
Organized by Vanderbilt School of Nursing faculty and Vanderbilt University Medical Center, the [Mobile Vaccine Program] has been visiting underserved communities since March to educate residents about the importance of the vaccine and administer shots. The Mobile Vaccine Program grew quickly from a successful spring pilot in Nashville’s Mercury Courts community, where School of Nursing and VUMC have long run a clinic for homeless and low-income patients. The vaccine program has attracted participation from Vanderbilt faculty, staff and student volunteers as well as pharmacy students and faculty at nearby Lipscomb University and undergraduate interns from Vanderbilt, Middle Tennessee State University and Tennessee State University. Outside agencies, including the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency and Urban Housing Solutions, soon joined the program partners in the vaccine effort. MORE
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VUbrief summarizes Vanderbilt news items to inform our Congressional community of developments at the university. Visit our website for past issues of VUbrief. Vanderbilt University Office of Federal Relations (202) 216-4361
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