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FEDERALLY FUNDED RESEARCH
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National Institutes of Health—Vanderbilt joins TSU, Meharry and the Congregational Health and Education Network on $4M NIH grant to address social factors in health
Sharon Jones, assistant professor of nursing, and David G. Schlundt, associate professor of psychology, are participating in a collaborative research project to address health disparities and advance health equity in Nashville. The five-year project—Engaging Partners in Caring Communities (EPICC): Building capacity to implement health promotion programs in African American churches—is being supported by a $4 million National Institutes of Health grant through the Transformative Research to Address Health Disparities and Advance Health Equity initiative. The initiative was “created to support unusually innovative research projects, which, if successful, would have a major impact in developing, disseminating, or implementing innovative and effective interventions that prevent, reduce, or eliminate health disparities and health inequities,” according to the effort’s website. The goal of the EPICC project is to reduce health disparities associated with chronic health conditions such as obesity, hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer by supporting delivery of evidence-based health promotion programs in churches serving African American communities. MORE
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National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation—Study explores how bacteria become drug resistant
Researchers at Vanderbilt University and the University of Arizona have revealed more of the inner-workings of a two-stage “molecular motor” in the cell membrane that enables bacteria to become resistant to drugs. Their findings . . . will aid the search for inhibitors that can “turn off” the protein, called an ABC transporter. They also inform efforts to block the human version of the transporter that enables tumor cells to become resistant to chemotherapy. Understanding how transporters work is essential to developing drugs to block them . . . . A primary vehicle for resistance is the multi-drug ABC (ATP-binding cassette) exporter. ABC exporters use ATP hydrolysis—the release of chemical energy stored in ATP molecules—to traffic a wide variety of molecules across cell membranes. ATP energy provides the power for ABC exporters to bind toxic chemicals, then turn around and expel them from the cell. In the case of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, however, this survival tactic can prove deadly to the human host they have invaded. [This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.] MORE
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National Science Foundation—Vanderbilt researchers contribute to promising global search for gravitational waves
An international team including Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy Stephen Taylor, postdoctoral fellow in multi-messenger astrophysics Nihan Pol, graduate student William Lamb and incoming graduate student Levi Schult has released its latest gravitational wave search results showing strong evidence for a low-frequency signal. Such a signal could hint at gravitational waves, which may be detected very soon. They also strengthen the emergence of similar signals that have been found in the individual data sets of the participating collaborations over the past few years, including recent results from the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) led locally by Taylor and his team. Low-frequency gravitational waves originate from pairs of orbiting supermassive black holes or from events that occurred soon after the Big Bang. Detecting these signals will open a new window in the gravitational-wave spectrum and help scientists enhance their understanding of the evolution of galaxies, their central black holes and the early universe. The NANOGrav project receives support from National Science Foundation Physics Frontiers Center. MORE
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National Science Foundation—Vanderbilt researchers combine paleontology and fluid physics to uncover Ediacaran nurseries
Knowing how life worked on Earth 550 million years ago can give perspective on how life could evolve on other planets. Geobiologist and Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences Simon Darroch and postdoctoral researcher Brandt Gibson are working to figure that out. Their research features strange, vase-like organisms (in the genus Ernietta) that lived in the Ediacaran era—approximately 635 million to 541 million years ago. These organisms lived in marine environments, where fluid dynamics drive the evolution of the organisms that inhabit them. Computer models of fluid dynamics that affect communities of organisms suggest that when isolated, larger individuals have better nutrient circulation in their body cavities than smaller individuals. However, when different sizes of individuals live together, larger ones can create beneficial conditions for smaller ones that are downstream. This work brought two distinct areas of science together—paleontology and fluid dynamics, which describes the flow of liquids and gases. [This research was supported in part by the National Science Foundation.] MORE
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Department of Defense—Vanderbilt-developed gunshot detection technology leads to arrest in Las Vegas shooting
Gunshot detection technology developed by Vanderbilt engineers and commercialized by a longtime research partner recently helped lead to an arrest in a fatal shooting in Las Vegas. Within seconds of the first shot in late August 2021, 16 sensors located along the Freemont Street Experience pedestrian mall provided the precise location and video—captured immediately before and after the shooting. The data led to the identification and eventual arrest of the suspect. Such a success story is gratifying to Janos Sallai, PhD ’08, an early developer of the technology and now chief technology officer at Databuoy, the company that licensed and commercialized it. Databuoy began working with Vanderbilt's [ Institute for Software Integrated Systems] on the technology, which began as a DoD-funded project, in 2006. Databuoy, which is based in McLean, Virginia, has installed gunshot detection systems inside schools and courthouses and outside in high crime areas and busy places such as the Freemont Street Experience. The technology accurately identifies gunshots while classifying and segregating other loud noises such as fireworks, vehicle backfires, popping balloons, or heavy machinery. MORE
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Autoimmune drug shows promise in treating severe burns
A severe burn injury is not static. Within 72 hours, partial thickness burns can progress, or convert, to full thickness burns, greatly increasing the risk of infection, incapacitating scarring, and even death. Preventing the conversion is one of the most challenging aspects of treating burns, and a trans-institutional team of researchers from Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the School of Engineering has found a potential new approach—a prescription drug approved to treat inflammation in several autoimmune diseases, embedded and delivered in a topical gel, shows promise in reducing the severity of burn injuries. To develop a delivery method for the proposed treatment, [the team developed] microfluidic networks in hydrogel materials and scalable micro/nanofabrication techniques for producing smart soft materials with novel functionality. The results? The microcapillary gel, embedded with infliximab, reduced inflammation within partially burned skin and reduced progression to full-thickness burns. All subjects in the treatment cohort showed decreased conversion of burn from partial to full thickness injury when compared to the control group. MORE
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Follow the Data
[Information from sophisticated technology, real-time data from treating patients and collaborating with health care teams in making diagnoses or charting a path for care is] often aggregated into a de-identified massive set of numbers that can help researchers search for large-scale patterns that could ultimately lead to new innovations and novel insights. Nurse informaticists, health informaticists and data scientists have traditionally been the specialists helping make sense of these massive data sets. As the amount of data collected grows exponentially, it provides the ability to examine health care in entirely new ways, particularly in nursing. In 2019, the increased opportunities and new capabilities available to informaticists led Vanderbilt School of Nursing to completely revise its nursing informatics master’s program to incorporate newly emerging informatics competencies. Graduate students study the latest techniques and tools for data analysis, detecting health patterns among large populations and exploring new developments in health technology. MORE
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Vanderbilt University named founding partner in venture fund designed to invest in Black-founded and -led health care companies
Vanderbilt University is among the founding investors in Jumpstart Nova, the first venture fund in the United States to invest exclusively in Black-founded and -led companies at the forefront of health care innovation. The $55 million fund will invest exclusively in Black founder-led health care companies across health IT, digital health, tech-enabled services, diagnostic devices, biotech, medical device manufacturing and consumer health and wellness. Jumpstart Nova enables leaders focused on innovation in the health care industry to invest in talented Black health care founders. Of the nearly 785,000 companies in the U.S. health care sector today, only 35,000 businesses in the health care and social assistance sector are Black- or African American-owned, or less than 5 percent. MORE
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Divinity School will use $1 million grant to expand access for students pursuing careers in ministry
Vanderbilt University has received a $1 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to help Vanderbilt Divinity School establish a project focused on educating pastoral leaders who are exploring alternative pathways in ministry, today and the future. Titled “Strengthening Theological Education Beyond Our Walls,” the project will develop and deepen programs to reach those in pursuit of ministry who may be called to second careers, possess bi-vocational aspirations for ministry or are unable to accommodate a traditional full-time educational model. The three-phase initiative is designed to help theological schools across the United States and Canada as they prioritize and respond to the most pressing challenges they face as they prepare pastoral leaders for Christian congregations now and into the future. 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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