The protein titin is a large structural component of the sarcomere — the machinery that mediates contraction of cardiac muscle cells. Despite its importance to the beating heart, little is known about titin turnover.
Mendelian diseases, those caused by a single deleterious genetic variant, often present as constellations of clinical features.
Kimryn Rathmell, MD, PhD, Cornelius Abernathy Craig Professor of Medicine and director of the Division of Hematology and Oncology, has been named as interim chair of the Department of Medicine in the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Her appointment is effective Jan. 1, 2020.
Although the protein, called TRAP-alpha, was first discovered more than 30 years ago, its biological function has been unclear. The new findings, reported Dec. 4 in Science Advances, demonstrate that TRAP-alpha is required for both early and late steps in insulin synthesis.
Cardiac valve surgery patients who participate in a cardiac rehabilitation program have a 34% lower risk of hospitalizations and a 4.2% lower risk of mortality than patients who do not enroll in cardiac rehab in the year after surgery.
Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) has been awarded a three-year, $3 million grant from The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust to map — in unprecedented detail — the biology of Crohn’s disease.
A study in the World Journal of Surgery finds that obesity and two post-operative complications linked with it, incisional hernia and post-op infection, have associated genetic variants in common.
Human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a primary cause of lower respiratory tract infections among young children worldwide, and leads to 60,000 deaths globally each year. A vaccine does not yet exist, although several candidates are in development.
Vanderbilt University Medical Center will be the first in the state to offer a minimally invasive, non-surgical alternative for patients with emphysema.
The bacterial toxin lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is one of the most potent virulence factors of Gram-negative bacteria that cause sepsis. Exposure to even tiny amounts can trigger a systemic — and potentially lethal — inflammatory response known as endotoxin shock.
