The Ellis Island Medals of Honor rank among the nation’s most renowned awards, officially recognized by the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, with each year’s recipients listed in the Congressional Record.
Using mouse models and cell culture experiments, researchers at Vanderbilt Health, including Roy Zent, MD, PhD (Nephrology and Hypertension), demonstrated that kindlins regulate both cellular and extracellular matrix interactions and growth factor signaling during the formation of ureteric buds, a key step in the development of the kidneys’ urine collection system.
Billy Hudson, PhD, was selected in recognition of his pioneering contributions to matrix biology and transformative discoveries in type IV collagen research.
Researchers at Vanderbilt Health, including Dr. Edward Siew, and three other centers compared conventional dialysis to a conservative dialysis strategy.
In a paper recently published in Molecular Metabolism, Department of Medicine researchers Drs. Fabian Bock, Nathan Winn, and colleagues, report on findings that could lead to more targeted ways to increase insulin-stimulated glucose uptake by muscle and exercise tolerance.
Two faculty researchers in the Department of Medicine have received Young Physician-Scientist Awards from the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI). Vineet Agrawal, MD, PhD (Cardiovascular Medicine), and Fabian Bock, MD, PhD (Nephrology and Hypertension), are among 50 investigators nationwide selected for the 2026 Young Physician-Scientist Award by the elite honor society.
The collaboration will leverage VUMC’s resource platform, including its comprehensive datasets hosted in Vanderbilt’s BioVU collection of DNA and plasma to enable data-driven insights and to accelerate discovery and development.
The Vanderbilt Transplant Center (VTC) performed 960 solid organ transplants in 2025, the most ever completed by a single center in one year in the United States.
VUMC researchers, including Division of Nephrology and Hypertension Drs. Fabian Bock, Roy Zent and colleagues, have discovered that a protein called Rac1 acts like a molecular switch to promote tubule repair.
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.
