Mild traumatic brain injury, particularly when associated with contact sports and with military service, has gained public awareness as a health concern. This Social Issues Roundtable explores the complex issues of concussion and its multiple impacts to the brain — from diagnosis to long-term consequences.

Drug addiction does not discriminate between the sexes, with both men and women showing comparable rates of addiction across a range of legal and illicit drugs. However, there is evidence that the ramping up of addiction from initial use to a clinical diagnosis occurs more rapidly in women for several different drugs of abuse, including cocaine.

The introduction of “addiction vaccines” has brought with it a belief that we have the potential to cure addicts before they have ever tried a drug. Proponents of addiction vaccines hold that they will: prevent children from becoming addicted to drugs in the future, allow addicts to easily and safely stop using drugs, and potentially lower the social and economic costs of addiction for society at large.

Ensuring a productive and professional relationship between mentor and mentee is not always easy, especially when differences in training goals arise. This workshop explores both of their perspectives and suggests best practices to foster productive relationships and address challenges.

High impact chapters do three things consistently: communicate with the public, recruit volunteers, and seek resources.

Real-world scenes are highly complex, cluttered, and heterogeneous visual stimuli.

Christopher Tobias, the executive vice president and managing director of Dudnyk, tells the story of how he chose to leave academia after 10 years of basic science research. He explains how the strengths he gained from doctoral work equipped him with a number of skillsets that helped him build a successful business career.

Go Beyond the Lab with former PhD students and postdocs from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Through the ASPIRE Program, which is funded by a BEST grant from the NIH, the Biomedical Research Education and Training office at Vanderbilt has produced a video series highlighting the varied jobs that PhDs in the biomedical sciences pursue after their training is complete. The series interviews Vanderbilt alumni about their career and their advice for others who want to pursue similar professional paths.

Animals that live in nontropical climates need to adjust their behavior and physiology throughout the year to survive in the face of a cyclically changing environment.

“Career success shouldn't be a competition; it should be satisfaction. To me, it should be a relief when you sit back and replay your research area, what you have been able to contribute to society, and what society has been able to gain from you.” -Aminat Imamfulani, University of Ilorin