Vanderbilt University

Social Risk Screening and Referrals in the Pediatric Inpatient Setting

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Many professional organizations recently recommended inpatient screening for social risks. Although prior studies have explored social risk screening rates in children's hospitals, many excluded community hospitals and lacked detail on screening practices....

Substrate-bound structures of yeast ALA synthase reveal protein dynamics initiating heme biosynthesis

Heme is an essential prosthetic group involved in multiple biological processes in nearly all organisms. Heme biosynthesis is initiated by the pyridoxal 5′-phosphate–dependent enzyme aminolevulinic acid synthase (ALAS). Mutations in ALAS cause multiple hematological diseases. Des...

Star Wars at Fifty

This symposium celebrates the 50th anniversary of Star Wars (1977) with nineteen short essays from scholars who discuss its meaning, impact, and legacy. The essays examine the migrations and manifestations of the Star Wars universe across media, including animation, video games,...

Examining Compensation Across Child Life Specialist Programs in the United States

Certified Child Life Specialists are essential healthcare team members, yet compensation is a frequently cited driver of decreased staffing retention and reduced employee wellbeing. Research to date has not yet systematically examined child life compensation as a potential primar...

Public Perceptions of Timeliness for AI Use and Human Oversight

This cross-sectional study assesses perceptions on use of artificial intelligence (AI) for medical patient portal messaging and mental health support, with opinions stratified by birth generation.

Effect of Vasopressin Initiation Threshold on Septic Shock Mortality

Importance The optimal vasopressor dose at which to initiate a second vasopressor in patients with septic shock is uncertain. Objective To compare the effects of hospital-level strategies initiating vasopressin infusion at a lower threshold vs a higher threshold on outcomes in pa...

Tunable Nonlinear Landscapes in Graphene Nanoelectromechanical Systems

Abstract Nonlinear nanomechanical resonators give convenient solid-state access to classical analogs of extreme nonlinear optics and to phononic signal processing. Here we report integer harmonic generation, phononic frequency sideband comb, and reverse period-doubling dynamics i...

Cardiovascular Complications of Chronic Liver Disease

Chronic liver disease is an increasingly prevalent and heterogeneous syndrome with important consequences for cardiovascular function. As the global burdens of chronic liver disease and cirrhosis continue to rise, cardiovascular disease has emerged as a major driver of overall mo...

An IscS Persulfide Donates the Sulfur for Ribosomal Protein uL16 Thioamidation

ABSTRACT Posttranslational sulfur incorporation into peptide backbones is increasingly reported. These efforts broaden our understanding of thioamides, which have distinct conformational and hydrogen‐bonding properties compared with amides. YcaO‐catalyzed thioamidation of the rib...

Increased neuroplastic activity is associated with cognitive decline in women but not men over an average 6-year follow-up period

Women are disproportionately affected by Alzheimer’s disease compared to men, a difference that may be partly explained by the role of female sex hormones. Estrogen, in particular, may play a key role in neuroplasticity. However, as women age and estrogen levels decline, high lev...

An IscS Persulfide Donates the Sulfur for Ribosomal Protein uL16 Thioamidation

ABSTRACT Posttranslational sulfur incorporation into peptide backbones is increasingly reported. These efforts broaden our understanding of thioamides, which have distinct conformational and hydrogen‐bonding properties compared with amides. YcaO‐catalyzed thioamidation of the rib...

Metabolic stress exacerbates Ca 2+ dysregulation and arrhythmias in catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia

Abstract Catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (CPVT) is a genetic arrhythmic syndrome caused by mutations in the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) calcium (Ca 2+ ) release channel RyR2 or its accessory proteins, including calsequestrin‐2 (CASQ2). RyR2 dysfunction or le...

A living systematic review, meta-analysis, and open data resource of trials of MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD

Abstract 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) has emerged as a potential treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, rapidly changing evidence in a fast-moving field can be challenging to integrate. Here, we present a living systematic review and open-data m...

Discovery of G2019S Mutant Selective LRRK2 Inhibitors Based on an Indazole Octahydrocyclopenta[ c ]pyrrole-Based Hybrid Chemotype

Abstract LRRK2 is an important kinase target for Parkinson’s disease with disease-modifying potential. In this article, we report our efforts to identify indazole octahydrocyclopenta[c]pyrrole-based hybrid chemotypes as LRRK2 inhibitors utilizing a structure-guided hybridization...

Pregnancy outcomes following exposure to galcanezumab: Analysis of cases from the galcanezumab clinical trials and postmarketing database

OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted to describe pregnancy outcomes reported following maternal or paternal exposure to galcanezumab in clinical trials and postmarketing surveillance. BACKGROUND: Galcanezumab is a calcitonin gene-related peptide-inhibiting monoclonal antibody indi...

Nonadherence, Diversion, or Analytical Limitation? A Negative Urine Opiate Screen in a Patient Prescribed Hydrocodone

Urine drug testing is commonly used to assess adherence to prescribed opioid therapy. We describe a patient prescribed hydrocodone/acetaminophen who reported recent use but had negative urine opiate and oxycodone immunoassay screens, raising concerns regarding nonadherence or div...

Institutional characteristics associated with meeting the proficiency benchmark in Brazil’s National Medical Education Assessment (ENAMED): a nationwide Bayesian hierarchical analysis

Brazil’s medical education system has expanded at an unprecedented pace, largely through policies intended to increase physician supply and reduce regional disparities. In 2025, Brazil introduced the National Medical Education Assessment Examination (ENAMED), which assesses gradu...

From Classification to Cross-Modal Understanding: Leveraging Vision- Language Models for Fine-Grained Renal Pathology

Fine-grained glomerular subtyping is essential for kidney biopsy interpretation, yet it presents a harder setting than the broad organ- or disease-level recognition tasks commonly used in vision-language model (VLM) evaluation. In this task, all categories arise within the same r...

Assessing the Mucosal Inflammatory Endotype of Obesity in Chronic Rhinosinusitis

ABSTRACT Background Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is a heterogeneous inflammatory syndrome of the paranasal sinuses that is defined phenotypically as either with nasal polyps (CRSwNP) or without nasal polyps (CRSsNP). More recently, inflammatory markers have been used to cluster p...

Tobacco use moderates associations between cannabis use, psychiatric symptoms, and cognitive performance in psychosis spectrum disorders

Tobacco and cannabis use are highly prevalent among individuals with psychotic disorders. Tobacco use has been consistently linked to poorer clinical and cognitive outcomes, whereas findings regarding cannabis use remain mixed. The present study was a secondary analysis of cross-...