The study was published in JAMA Dermatology by Infectious Disease colleagues, Drs. Elizabeth Phillips and Michelle Martin-Pozo.

“Dr. DeFilippis is a visionary leader with a proven track record of excellence across research, clinical care and education," said Bryan Harris, MD, MPH, MMHC, interim chair of the Department of Medicine.

Infectious diseases specialist Anna Person, MD, professor of Medicine and director of Education and Faculty Development in the Division of Infectious Diseases, has been named chair of the board of directors of the HIV Medical Association (HIVMA).

VUMC recently held a Directorship Celebration to honor 23 leaders, including seven in the Department of Medicine, from across the enterprise in clinical care, research, education and administration.

According to research recently published in JAMA Dermatology by Elizabeth Phillips, MD, and colleagues, a newly identified genetic marker, HLA-A*34:02, may significantly improve the ability to predict life-threatening reactions to the gout medication allopurinol in U.S. patients.

An international research consortium co-led by scientists from Vanderbilt University Medical Center, the University of Toronto and University of Pittsburgh has mapped the functional impact of more than 17,000 variants in a major gene associated with the development of premature atherosclerotic heart disease.

Dr. Towler will come to VUMC from the University of Missouri School of Medicine, and will begin his new role at VUMC in February 2026.

The new Multimodal AI for Type 1 Diabetes (MAI-T1D) project — funded by the National Institutes of Health — will use the latest advances in artificial intelligence (AI) alongside a wide range of health data with the goal of accelerating discoveries to better treat and prevent T1D. The project is a collaboration between scientists from VUMC, including Marcella Brissova, PhD (Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism).

According to research recently published in Frontiers in Immunology by Jacek Hawiger, MD, PhD (Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine), and colleagues, a “peptide genomic therapy” given in combination with an antibiotic nearly doubles survival rates from sepsis in an animal model, compared to treatment with antibiotic alone.

VUMC researchers have secured a funding extension from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) to expand use of an artificial intelligence-guided platform for extracting and organizing critical information from unstructured clinical notes and reports in medical records.