The Vanderbilt women’s bowling team erased a 3-1 deficit Saturday and defeated Arkansas State to win the national championship. The Commodores rose up from the loser’s bracket after losing to Arkansas State on Friday to beat McKendree on Friday and Nebraska on Saturday to advance to the final. Vandy found itself down 2-0 and 3-1 before rallying for the win. The national championship is the third in program history for Vanderbilt. Vandy also won the national title in 2007 and 2018. Vanderbilt also has national championships in baseball (2014, 2019) and tennis (2015). MORE

Krishnendu “Krish” Roy, a Regents’ Professor at Georgia Institute of Technology and a nationally renowned researcher, will be the next Bruce and Bridgitt Evans Dean of Engineering of the Vanderbilt University School of Engineering, Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs C. Cybele Raver announced today. Roy will be a University Distinguished Professor at Vanderbilt and succeed Philippe Fauchet, who led the School of Engineering for 11 years through significant and strategic growth in research collaborations, academic programs, endowed chairs and faculty and student recruitment. Fauchet, a professor of electrical engineering, will step down June 30 and return to the faculty in 2024 after a sabbatical. Roy brings clear strategic vision and leadership acumen to his new role as dean of Vanderbilt’s School of Engineering. He is a champion of big ideas who has helped secure more than $85 million in funding from federal, state, industrial and philanthropic sources. Roy and his collaborators have applied this funding to discover innovative ways to deliver new therapies to treat complex diseases like cancer and tuberculosis. MORE

An innovative exosuit developed by a team of Vanderbilt engineers comes full circle this semester with a pilot implementation in the Division of Administration. Research on what became known as the Herowear Apex suit began in 2015. It was initially funded by a Vanderbilt University Discovery Grant, a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and a National Institutes of Health Career Development Award. In late March 2023, the Division of Administration offered its support to the Vanderbilt-developed technology by acquiring Apex 2 suits for testing in Facilities, Campus Dining, Athletics Concessions and Mail Services. The pilot test includes the use of 27 Apex 2 suits over six weeks. During the pilot test, users will wear the suits in actual work conditions and provide feedback throughout the duration of the study. In addition to the on-campus pilot of Apex 2 exosuits, Herowear recently completed a collaboration with the 101st Airborne Division of the U.S. Army as part of the Pathfinder Project, advancing the Army Futures Command’s modernization goals. MORE

Graduate student Reese Martin and his doctoral advisor, Ann Tate, assistant professor of biological sciences, used theoretical modeling to identify a potential relationship between genetic pleiotropy and the evolution of immune responses. The work was inspired by a perceived conflict between the rapid evolution of immunity, the usually slow evolution of pleiotropic genes, and the abundance of pleiotropic genes involved in immunity. Martin and Tate designed an evolutionary model where hosts were required to fend off parasites and the hosts that successfully fended off parasites created the next generation of hosts, with the potential to pass along a mutation to a child. Some hosts were also saddled with a trait in their immunity that could not be changed, corresponding to the slowly evolving nature of pleiotropic genes. [This work was supported by NIH’s National Institute of General Medical Sciences.] MORE

Sarah Worthan, a postdoctoral researcher, led a new effort with undergraduate researcher Robert McCarthy and their advisor, assistant professor of biological sciences Megan Behringer, to understand the effects of the environment on the outcome of experimental evolution studies. The article, “Case Studies in the Assessment of Microbial Fitness: Seemingly Subtle Changes Can Have Major Effects on Phenotypic Outcomes,” was just published in the Journal of Molecular Evolution. Experimental evolution, especially studies using microbes like E. coli, often use a fitness evaluation to report the results of evolution. In this study, the team tested small but important changes in the execution of these fitness tests to see how those changes might affect the results. What they discovered was that the environment that the experimental population was subjected to is important in determining the outcome of the fitness tests. [This study was supported by the Life Sciences Division, Army Research Office.] MORE

New applications of artificial intelligence (AI) to renal pathology have been driven by the widespread use of digital diagnostic imaging and interdisciplinary collaborations between computer scientists, nephrologists and renal pathologists with potential for major impacts in diagnosis and understanding of kidney diseases. A Vanderbilt computer scientist is working with key clinical collaborators at Vanderbilt University Medical Center to develop a quantitative and reproducible 3D analytics tool for large-scale digital analysis of kidney tissues and biopsies. For this project . . . Huo has received a five-year, $2.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.  MORE

Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Basic Sciences has launched the Center for Applied Artificial Intelligence in Protein Dynamics, which is focused on the intersection of artificial intelligence, machine learning and macromolecular mechanism. It will be led by Hassane Mchaourab, who holds the Louise B. McGavock Chair in the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics. At its outset, the center will recruit experts in AI and machine learning to adapt and create computational approaches to develop an understanding of protein energy landscapes that mediate shape changes; leverage new information to identify new drug candidates more precisely; develop graduate training programs in AI-centric computational protein structure and dynamics; and conduct outreach programs that increase awareness of AI’s role in shaping society. The programs include bringing the latest AI into Nashville schools, especially for students from underrepresented minorities in STEM who may have limited exposure to AI. MORE

Racial inequality in school discipline is a major problem across the United States. Black students experience disproportional office disciplinary referrals and out-of-school suspensions, which lead to greater losses in instructional time. Reducing the use of exclusionary discipline is critical for improving academic achievement and educational equity from preschool through twelfth grade. Researchers suggest that policies to reduce racial inequality in exclusionary discipline should focus on investments to improve school climate; diversify teachers and administrators and retain experienced ones; and provide professional development training on discipline, relationship building, classroom management, and cultural competency, especially for less experienced teachers. That’s according to Richard Welsh, associate professor of education and public policy at Vanderbilt’s Peabody College of education and human development. MORE

April is Autism Acceptance Month, sometimes referred to as Autism Awareness Month, and is a dedication to recognizing the growing number of children identified with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the impact of autism, and an opportunity to celebrate those living with ASD. The topic of neurodiversity in the workplace is growing in interest among leaders across the globe. Tim Vogus, Deputy Director, Frist Center for Autism and Innovation, and Brownlee O. Currey, Jr., Professor of Management, are using research to push for a workforce that welcomes, accepts, and embraces neurodivergent professionals. The Frist Center For Autism and Innovation is a cross-university program that brings engineers, business scholars, and disabilities researchers together with experts in neuroscience and education to understand, maximize, and promote neurodivergent talent. The Center takes a strengths-based approach (as opposed to deficit-based) to understanding autism and neurodiversity. MORE

Research from Associate Professor of Medical and Linguistic Anthropology T.S. Harvey demonstrates how a disease’s name can have a significant impact on the public’s perception, attitude and behavior toward the disease. Disease names should be chosen with careful consideration of the impacts of miscommunication, disinformation and the “infodemic” on public health, he said. In research recently published in a special issue of Pathogens, Harvey investigates the name COVID-19. Medical communication research shows that when technical terms are used, the public tends to view ailments as more serious. However, the downside of using technical terms—jargon—in public health is that they can be harder to understand. Harvey’s research demonstrates that the disease name COVID-19 constitutes jargon. While it was clear among experts in virology, medicine and public health, it was not fully understood by the public—particularly in early stages of the pandemic. MORE

Vanderbilt University joined Silicon Ranch Corp., Nashville Electric Service and Tennessee Valley Authority on April 11 to “flip the switch” on the Vanderbilt I Solar Farm, a 35-megawatt solar facility in Bedford County, Tennessee. The solar facility is a significant step by Vanderbilt toward the ambitious goal it announced in 2019 to power its campus entirely through renewable energy and become carbon neutral by 2050. The renewable energy generated from the Vanderbilt I Solar Farm will offset approximately 70 percent of the university’s annual indirect greenhouse gas emissions from electricity purchased through Nashville Electric Service, or the equivalent of enough power to help serve more than 6,000 homes for one year. Nashville-based Silicon Ranch, one of the nation’s largest independent power producers and a community-focused renewable energy company, developed and funded the project and hired more than 250 craft workers to build the solar facility. MORE