Smoking study personalizes treatment

A simple blood test is allowing researchers to determine which patients should be prescribed varenicline (Chantix) to stop smoking and which patients could do just as well, and avoid side effects, by using a nicotine patch. A simple blood test is allowing Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) researchers to determine which patients should be prescribed…

Nutri-ge-what?

What if there was one easy test that could tell you exactly what you should and shouldn’t eat and how often? Introducing nutrigenomics: the perfect diet to end all diets. Is this the diet of the future? Or is it all just too good to be true? After the completion of the Human Genome Project,…

Cystic fibrosis: Discovery of a key molecule for improving treatments

Researchers identify a promising avenue for improving treatments for people with cystic fibrosis. They found that adding molecules called quorum-sensing inhibitors to current drugs not only reduces bacterial production of certain harmful residues but also restores the efficacy of existing treatments, such as Orkambi and Kalydeco, on the cells of cystic fibrosis patients. This breakthrough…

Genetic study defies ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to prescribing opioids for chronic pain

Researchers are assessing clinical and genetic characteristics of a large patient cohort suffering from chronic musculoskeletal pain and receiving prescription opioids. With this information, the multidisciplinary team will derive a clinical and genetic profile of prescription opioid-use disorder and use this knowledge to develop an “addiction risk score.” Findings from this study will be key…