BRENTWOOD, Tennessee, July 24 -- The American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B - Neuropsychiatric Genetics, a journal that says it provides a forum for experimental and clinical investigations of the genetic, epigenetic and protein signaling mechanisms underlying neurologic and psychiatric disorders, published research articles, including the following topics, in its August 2020 edition: NEW SYNDROME: * Developmental delay, intellectual disability, short stature, subglottic stenosis, hearin  more

CHICAGO, Illinois, July 20 -- The American Osteopathic Association issued the following news release: Thomas L. Ely, DO, FACOFP, FAAFP, was installed as the 124th president of the American Osteopathic Association (AOA). Dr. Ely, an AOA board-certified osteopathic family physician and fellow of the American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians and the American Academy of Family Physicians, is a 20-year combat veteran who lives in Clarksville, Tennessee. His inauguration was held virtually du  more

NASHVILLE, Tennessee, July 22 -- The Campaign Legal Center issued the following news release: Campaign Legal Center (CLC) is bringing legal action against Tennessee election officials for their refusal to recognize the voting rights of certain citizens with felony convictions. CLC and local counsel Sherrard, Roe, Voight & Harrison, as well as their two individual clients, Ernest Falls and Artie Bledsoe, are urging the court to correct a reversal by the state and allow all people who have had th  more

MEMPHIS, Tennessee, July 21 -- The Communications Workers of America issued the following news release: AT&T workers and other members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) union will hold a socially distanced protest as part of the national Strike for Black Lives Monday afternoon outside an AT&T Mobility Call Center in Memphis, Tenn. The AT&T call center workers will be joined by their colleagues from the AT&T Mobility warehouse and retail stores in Memphis, along with other local uni  more

NEW YORK, July 23 -- The Innocence Project issued the following news release: A petition for post-conviction DNA testing was filed on behalf of Pervis Payne, a black man with intellectual disability on Tennessee's death row. Mr. Payne, who had no prior criminal history, has maintained his innocence for more than 30 years and is represented by Innocence Project attorneys Barry Scheck and Vanessa Potkin, Nashville attorney Kelley Henry, and Scott Edelman, Jed Schwartz, and Andrew Porter of Milban  more

MEMPHIS, Tennessee, July 24 -- St. Jude Children's Research Hospital issued the following news release: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital has appointed Heather Brandt, Ph.D., a behavioral scientist with expertise in cancer prevention and control, to lead community outreach and research programs focused on the prevention of human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated cancers through vaccination. Brandt joins St. Jude this week. In addition to her role as director of the St. Jude HPV Cancer Preven  more

OAK RIDGE, Tennessee, July 21 -- The Oak Ridge Associated Universities issued the following news release: We don't stop at compliance, but instead we strive for excellence," said Tom Amidon, director, ORAU Safeguards and Security. ORAU received a rating of superior from the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) following a 2019 vulnerability assessment. ORAU showed zero vulnerabilities, an indicator of companywide dedication to a highly proficient security culture. To achiev  more

OAK RIDGE, Tennessee, July 23 -- The Oak Ridge Associated Universities issued the following news release: Donna Cragle, Ph.D., a giant in the field of occupational health epidemiology, stepped away from many of her supervisory duties in 2019 to return her focus primarily to beryllium studies and worker health, the research that brought her to ORAU 38 years ago. Cragle handed over her responsibilities as senior vice president and director of Health, Energy and Environment, a $63 million ORAU pr  more

NASHVILLE, Tennessee, July 24 -- Vanderbilt University Medical Center issued the following news: Vanderbilt University Medical Center is attracting international attention for its proposal to repurpose existing drugs for new uses in ways that can dramatically improve access to medicines by billions of people throughout the world. Project Remedi, which stands for Repurposing Essential Medicines Internationally, is a partnership of VUMC's Drug Repurposing Program and the Aurum Institute, a leadi  more

NASHVILLE, Tennessee, July 23 -- Vanderbilt University Medical Center issued the following news: A $500,000 KidneyX prize has been awarded to The Kidney Project -- a collaboration between Vanderbilt University Medical Center and University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) -- for the development of an implantable dialysis system that would enable patients to safely and effectively treat kidney failure at home. The proposed system, called iHemo, involves connecting an implanted hemofilter-lik  more

NASHVILLE, Tennessee, July 23 -- Vanderbilt University Medical Center issued the following news: Katherine Amidon, a PhD student in the Department of Biological Sciences at Vanderbilt University, has been selected as the 2020 Vanderbilt Prize Student Scholar. She will receive a $1,000 cash prize and will be mentored by the recipient of the 2020 Vanderbilt Prize in Biomedical Science, Jennifer Doudna, PhD, who led development of the revolutionary genome editing technology known as CRISPR-Cas9.   more

NASHVILLE, Tennessee, July 24 -- Vanderbilt University Medical Center issued the following news: Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) is a quality control mechanism that regulates levels of both aberrant and wild-type cellular RNAs. It also contributes to antiviral immunity against select plant and human RNA viruses. However, whether NMD exerts an antiviral effect against DNA viruses was not known. Now, John Karijolich, PhD, and colleagues have demonstrated that NMD restricts replication of the   more

NASHVILLE, Tennessee, July 24 -- Vanderbilt University Medical Center issued the following news: The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) is recommending two changes that will nearly double the number of people eligible for lung cancer screening by lowering the age from 55 to 50 and reducing the number of smoking history pack years from 30 to 20. The recommendations, which are currently in the public comment phase and not yet formally adopted, have particular significance for women and  more

NASHVILLE, Tennessee, July 24 -- Vanderbilt University Medical Center issued the following news: Get out your headphones and turn up the volume. A new podcast--Vanderbilt Health DNA: Discoveries in Action--will be launching in the coming weeks! It's a 10-episode series exploring the big ideas and breakthroughs from people who live and breathe what they do, and think without boundaries. Episodes dive into topics like vaccines, technologies and visions shaping how and when people get care, unco  more

NASHVILLE, Tennessee, July 23 -- Vanderbilt University Medical Center issued the following news: Vivian Kawai, MD, MPH, research assistant professor of Medicine, has received an LRA-BMS Accelerator Award from the Lupus Research Alliance and sponsoring partner Bristol Myers Squibb. Kawai is one of 10 investigators to receive the award, which aims to "stimulate lupus research innovation, accelerate investigation of human lupus and realize synergies between academic and industry," the Lupus Resea  more

NASHVILLE, Tennessee, July 22 -- Vanderbilt University Medical Center issued the following news: Patients treated and transported by Vanderbilt LifeFlight are now receiving a higher level of care thanks to the credentialing of more than 20 flight nurses as nurse practitioners and the addition of a flight physician at several LifeFlight bases. Now, out of a staff of about 100 flight crew members, more than 25% are providing care at the nurse practitioner or physician level. Vanderbilt LifeFligh  more

NASHVILLE, Tennessee, July 23 -- Vanderbilt University Medical Center issued the following news: Newly released data on treatment outcomes of people with cancer diagnosed with COVID-19 reveal a racial disparity in access to Remdesivir, an antiviral drug that has been shown to shorten hospital stays, and increased mortality associated with dexamethasone, a steroid that has had the opposite effect in the general patient population. The data on 2,186 adults in the United States by the COVID-19 an  more

NASHVILLE, Tennessee, July 24 -- Vanderbilt University Medical Center issued the following news: Lori Anne Parker-Danley, PhD, has been named the new director of Vanderbilt University Medical Center's Department of Patient Education, effective Aug. 1. Parker-Danley replaces Lane Stiles, who is retiring at the end of July. Stiles has served as the director of Patient Education since the office was created in 2010. Prior to his arrival at VUMC, the creation of patient education materials was ha  more

NASHVILLE, Tennessee, July 21 -- Vanderbilt University Medical Center issued the following news: Post-surgical bleeding is associated with more deaths than blood clots from surgery, according to a Vanderbilt University Medical Center study published in the journal Anesthesia & Analgesia. Researchers used nearly 15 years of data on millions of patients from the American College of Surgeons' National Surgical Quality Improvement Program database, and some very advanced computer techniques, to do  more

NASHVILLE, Tennessee, July 24 -- Vanderbilt University Medical Center issued the following news: Brinkley Sandvall, MD, bonds quickly with her young patients -- children who have acquired or congenital hand and upper extremity differences. After extensive training as a reconstructive hand surgeon, she runs the Hand and Upper Extremity program at Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt. "I feel like this is the greatest job -- it's the intersection of what I can do, what I want to   more

NASHVILLE, Tennessee, July 24 -- Vanderbilt University Medical Center issued the following news on July 23: Todd Rice, MD, MSc, has been appointed vice president for Clinical Trial Innovation and Operations in the Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (VICTR). In this new role, Rice will oversee the Vanderbilt Coordinating Center (VCC), which provides comprehensive, central support for a diverse platform of clinical and translational research projects, including multi-si  more

NASHVILLE, Tennessee, July 24 -- Vanderbilt University Medical Center issued the following news: The bacterium Helicobacter pylori colonizes the stomach in half of the world's population and increases the risk of gastric cancer. Strains of H. pylori that contain the "cag PAI" gene cluster are associated with higher cancer risk. These strains synthesize the Cag type IV secretion system (T4SS), which injects the oncoprotein CagA and other bacterial products into stomach cells. Aung Soe Lin, Mar  more

NASHVILLE, Tennessee, July 21 -- Vanderbilt University Medical Center issued the following news: Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have shown for the first time that when one optic nerve in the eye is damaged, as in glaucoma, the opposite optic nerve comes to the rescue by sharing its metabolic energy. In doing so, however, the undamaged optic nerve becomes vulnerable to further metabolic stress, which could explain why the neurodegeneration observed in this and other disease  more

NASHVILLE, Tennessee, July 23 -- Vanderbilt University Medical Center issued the following news: The Critical Illness, Brain Dysfunction and Survivorship Center at Vanderbilt University Medical Center is following patients who have been hospitalized for COVID-19 over time to see if they develop long-term cognitive impairment, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). These disabling features suffered by millions of ICU survivors are called Post-Intensive Care Syndrome (PICS). "Ther  more