Author: Chris Amelung

One in eight babies is born prematurely.Nearly one in every eight U.S. babies is born too early — three weeks or more before the estimated due date. Such premature births are the leading cause of newborn deaths and put babies at risk for chronic lung disease and other serious health problems. While some causes of prematurity are known, more than half of women who deliver early have no known risks. In an innovative approach, WUSM researchers Louis Muglia and Justin Fay are searching human DNA for clues to help explain why some women deliver early.

Clubfoot, one of the most common birth defects, affects 1 in 1,000 children.Children can be sensitive to any physical difference they have from other children. But the patients that Christina Gurnett studies are not just worried about having big ears, eyeglasses or braces. Her patients have more emotionally devastating musculoskeletal disorders, including hands with more or less than five fingers, clubfoot and scoliosis. Since the cause of these disorders and others like them is unknown, Gurnett is examining the possible genetic causes of these common disorders, which run in families.

Nearly 40 percent of babies with a condition known as Simpson Golabi Behmel syndrome will die soon after birth, likely because of heart problems related to the disorder, which causes them to grow too quickly. Researchers funded by the Children’s Discovery Institute are pursuing a unique new approach to treating this disorder: they’re hoping to use long chains of sugar molecules to coax troublemaking cells back to good behavior.

English physician David Barker noticed an interesting phenomenon during the Dutch famine in the mid-1940s. He found that babies from that era — although small for their gestational age — had a much higher incidence of diabetes, heart disease and obesity when they grew up. Barker hypothesized that the health of a pregnant woman could affect whether her child develops chronic diseases. That hypothesis has been confirmed in a number of studies since, and now, WUSM researchers are investigating in mice the link between diabetic mothers and their offspring.

Courtesy of the National Cancer InstituteBreast cancer cells stained brown using an antibody that recognizes malignant cellsClinical studies are proving that the genetic profile of a tumor can greatly influence its response to anticancer treatments. WUSM physician Matthew Ellis is conducting research that aims to use the genetic profile of breast tumors to guide breast cancer therapy and ultimately to find new drugs for treating the disease.

Researchers at the University and elsewhere recently helped the St. Louis Science Center probe the mysteries of a baby mummy. The mummy, part of the Science Center’s collection of artifacts for two decades, went on permanent public display on March 15 in conjunction with the arrival of an IMAX film on mummies.

Leonard Berg, M.D., was a pioneer in the assessment and detection of Alzheimer’s disease, the founder and former director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and professor emeritus of neurology. In honor of his distinguished careers both as a clinician and researcher, a memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. March 31 in the Connor Auditorium of the Farrell Learning and Teaching Center. A reception will follow. Berg died Monday, January 15, 2007, at age 79 following a stroke.

Listed below are this month’s featured news stories. • Side effects of AIDS medications (week of Mar. 7) • Belly fat’s role in disease (week of Mar. 14) • Aneurysm-causing enzyme identified (week of Mar. 21) • Smoking delays ligament healing (week of Mar. 28)

On the battlefield, a soldier’s hearing can be permanently damaged in an instant by the boom of an explosion, and thousands of soldiers returning from Iraq have some permanent hearing loss. But what if soldiers could take a pill before going on duty that would prevent damage to hearing? Research at the School of Medicine suggests a medicinal form of hearing protection may someday be a possibility.

Parag Parikh and Kristen Lechleiter set up the 4D Phantom to simulate the motion of tumors in the lung.Tumors that move, such as those in the lung — which can change position during each breath — are a special problem for radiation oncologists. A group at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has studied the way lung tissues move during breathing in hopes of improving radiation as a treatment for lung cancer.