Vanderbilt community gathers to honor The Covenant School
Members of the Vanderbilt and Nashville communities gathered on campus April 4 to honor those lost in the tragic shooting at The Covenant School. The Office for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, the Office of the Dean of Peabody College and the Center for Spiritual and Religious Life hosted the gathering, “Remembrance and Reflection: A Gathering for the Vanderbilt Community in Honor of The Covenant School” in the Wyatt Center Rotunda. For those who could not attend in person, a link to a recording of the remembrance ceremony is available. MORE
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Vanderbilt University joins effort to help students from small-town and rural America connect to higher educationSixteen of the nation’s most prominent universities and colleges, including Vanderbilt University, have teamed up in a new effort to help students from small-town and rural America enroll in, succeed at and graduate from the undergraduate program of their choice. With a $20 million gift from philanthropist Byron Trott, the STARS (Small-Town And Rural Students) College Network will build on efforts to create pathways to college for students who might not otherwise recognize the full range of educational opportunities available to them. This nationwide effort, the first of its kind, is designed to empower students to find the best institution for them, whether or not they ultimately choose to enroll at a STARS institution . . . The network includes Ivy League universities, state flagships and leading private schools. Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier said joining STARS is in keeping with the university’s commitment to diversify its student body and eliminate barriers to entry for qualified students. MORE
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| FEDERALLY FUNDED RESEARCH
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National Endowment for the Humanities—Undergraduate students tout the importance of NEH funding to their educationIn March, humanities advocates converged on Washington, D.C., for the first time since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic to advocate in person for funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities. Elizabeth Meadows, associate director of the Robert Penn Warren Center, was joined by two undergraduate students and members of the RPW Student Advisory Council—Coco Randolph and Shunnar Virani—to discuss how the humanities are shaping their education. The NEH provides essential support for humanities programs at universities like Vanderbilt. From the Challenge Grant that helped establish a permanent endowment for the Robert Penn Warren Center in 1989 to the recent Connections grant that is supporting innovative curriculum development, NEH funding at Vanderbilt supports the university’s humanities research and teaching endeavors. MORE
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National Institutes of Health—CMT Research Foundation invests in Vanderbilt University School of Medicine to advance research for CMT1AThe CMT Research Foundation, a non-profit focused solely on delivering treatments and cures for Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, has invested in a project at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Basic Sciences that seeks to treat the problem of overproduction of PMP22, the primary genetic cause of CMT in patients with CMT1A. This project, to be run by Charles Sanders, PhD, Vice Dean and Professor of Biochemistry and Medicine, aims to restore PMP22 to healthy functioning levels. Dr. Sanders will be joined by Bruce Carter PhD, Professor of Biochemistry at Vanderbilt and member of the CMTRF Scientific Advisory Board, as co-principal investigator. Aspects of their research are supported by Ancora Innovation, a company wholly owned by affiliates of Deerfield Management that supports Vanderbilt’s life science research and leverages Deerfield’s expertise in accelerating drug development. [The early-stage research on which these treatments are based was funded in part by NIH.] MORE
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National Institutes of Health—Vanderbilt researcher finds evidence for ant caste systems driven by chemo-sensing responsesStephen Ferguson, first-author of a new paper with his postdoctoral advisor, Laurence Zwiebel, Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair in Biological Sciences, and two undergraduates associated with the lab, Isaac Bakis (alumnus) and Nicholas Edwards, confirmed the existence of a specialized soldier caste within an ant species in a paper titled, “ Olfactory sensitivity differentiates morphologically distinct worker castes in Camponotus floridanus.” By exposing different members of the ant society to olfactory chemicals and quantifying their reactions, the team parsed out differences between smaller (minor caste) and larger (major caste) ants. The results of the chemo-sensing experiment suggest that minors can detect a broad range of odors and pheromones and are jacks-of-all trades responsible for many necessary activities in the nest, while majors are fine-tuned to detect chemical cues associated with enemy intruders and are primarily soldiers. [This work was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health.] MORE
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Wond’ry Fiber Arts Build Lab hosts interdisciplinary sprint to design dignity-centered hospital gownsIn a crossover between science and art, students, staff and faculty from Vanderbilt, other universities and Vanderbilt University Medical Center worked together on the shared goal of improving the ill-fitting hospital gowns that patients often wear. Initially proposed by Vanderbilt University School of Medicine student Noah Thompson Orfield, the idea was explored within the Medical Innovators Development Program course Innovation Activism and Altruism, led by Charleson Bell, director of entrepreneurship, biomedical innovation and the NSF Mid-South I-Corps Hub at the Wond’ry. The Wond’ry’s Fiber Arts Build Lab (FAB Lab) was involved in the process. More than 20 people engaged in the prototyping design sprint workshops. They received additional insights from guest speakers, including Dr. Lealani Acosta, associate professor of neurology at VUMC and a board-certified neurologist. MORE
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Innovative engineering method could help defang COVID-19 virus of its spike proteins, leading to new prevention options
Two Vanderbilt engineering professors could revolutionize the treatment of COVID-19 and related viral infections through research using nanotechnology to remove spike proteins from the viruses. Michael R. King, J. Lawrence Wilson Professor and chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, and Zhenjiang Zhang, research assistant professor of Biomedical Engineering, discuss the innovative approach in their paper titled, “ Neutralization of the New Coronavirus by Extracting their Spikes Using Engineered Liposomes.” The paper will be published in Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine. Nanomaterials have been pursued in the biomedical field over the last three decades due to their uniquely appealing features for drug delivery, diagnosis, imaging and miniaturized medical devices, according to the researchers. MORE
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Provost commissions Women in STEM Initiative, committee appointedA new Women in STEM Initiative will address the need for a larger and more skilled U.S. workforce in science, engineering and math by inspiring, supporting and mentoring young women to develop their fullest potential within those fields. Launched by the Office of the Provost, the initiative builds on Vanderbilt’s partnership with the STEMM Opportunity Alliance, which launched in December during an event at the White House. Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs C. Cybele Raver represented the university at the event. According to a 2023 National Science Foundation report, although women make up approximately half (51 percent) of the total U.S. population, they only constitute 35 percent of people employed in STEM fields in the United States. Additionally, women remain underrepresented among degree holders in the physical and earth sciences, math, engineering and computer science. MORE
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New dean of Basic Sciences aims to take Vanderbilt to the next level in biomedical research, drug discoveryWhether working on dynamic discoveries in the lab, connecting with students and faculty, or pursuing his passion for nature photography, acclaimed biomedical researcher John Kuriyan is inspired by his recent move to join Vanderbilt as the new dean of the School of Medicine Basic Sciences and Distinguished University Professor. The university’s collaborative culture, combined with its reputation for top-level science, has him excited about taking Vanderbilt to the next level in basic biomedical research and its connection to drug discovery. Having transferred his lab to Vanderbilt, Kuriyan is focusing his research on the workings of molecular switches in the cell, which are key in the development of cancer drugs. His research interests led him in 2009 to co-found Nurix Therapeutics, a publicly traded biotech company that develops and tests therapies for late-stage cancers. MORE
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Vanderbilt’s Shihong Lin wins Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research PrizeShihong Lin, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, has been awarded a Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize by the American Society of Civil Engineers. Lin was honored alongside three other researchers. The Huber Prize, named after former ASCE president Walter L. Huber, is given to researchers based on the impact of their research on their chosen subdisciplines and on the broader field of civil engineering. The award committee focuses on impact as measured by total number of citations, h-index, total research funding received and letters of recommendation. Lin was recognized for his contributions in advancing fundamental understanding of and developing innovative technologies for water separation processes to address critical challenges in water and resource sustainability. MORE
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