Author: Chris Amelung

Photo by Noah Devereau, Post-DispatchSleeping fruit flies pictured through a microscopeMuch like humans, fruit flies sleep at night and take midday naps. They also respond to stimulants like we do, and their young sleep a lot more than adults. A new study, using fruit flies as test subjects, shows that sleep is important for learning and memory and that the need for sleep is tied to memory genes.

Listed below are this month’s featured news stories. • Better memory performance (week of Sept. 6) • Predicting the spread of cancer (week of Sept. 13) • Curing diabetes in rats (week of Sept. 20) • Treating diabetes (week of Sept. 27)

Image courtesy of Jewish Hospital; Kleinert, Kutz and Associates Hand Care Center; and University of LouisvilleLimb transplantation involves several kinds of tissue.Years ago, the idea of attaching a donor limb onto a patient’s body would have been the stuff of science fiction. But to date about two-dozen people around the world have received hand transplants. Thomas Tung conducts research within this relatively unorthodox realm of surgery, investigating the use of therapy that could potentially allow the body to accept donor tissue without the use of immunosuppressive medication.

An approach proven to cure a rat model of type 1 or juvenile-onset diabetes also works in a rat model of type 2 or adult-onset diabetes, according to a new report from researchers at the School of Medicine.

Red areas of the circled leg in the right image show increased blood flow due to angiogenic cells.To speed healing at sites of injury – such as heart muscle after a heart attack or brain tissue after a stroke – doctors would like to be able to hasten the formation of new blood vessels. One promising approach is to “mobilize” patients’ blood vessel-forming cells, called angiogenic cells, so these cells can reach the injured area. Recently, researchers at the School of Medicine demonstrated that a drug called AMD3100 can mobilize angiogenic cells from bone marrow of human patients in a matter of hours.

An experimental anti-cancer regimen combined a diuretic, a Parkinson’s disease medication and a drug ordinarily used to reverse the effect of sedatives. In research conducted at the School of Medicine, the unusual mixture inhibited the growth of aggressive prostate tumors in laboratory mice.

A new drug has increased survival rates among children with a deadly form of muscular dystrophy called Pompe disease. Now WUSM researchers are testing the drug, Myozyme, in adults with Pompe.

Washington University Medical Center will serve as a venue for the fourth in a series of congressional subcommittee hearings concerning the use of health information technology to improve the quality and delivery of health care. The hearing, convened by the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Federal Workforce and Agency Organization, will occur at 1 […]

Many kids who may benefit from ADHD medications don’t get them.In contrast to claims that children are being overmedicated for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a team of researchers at the School of Medicine has found that a high percentage of kids with ADHD are not receiving treatment. In fact, almost half of the children who might benefit from ADHD drugs were not getting them.

Hearts with muscle thickening (left) get less energy because of their reduced fat metabolism.”The heart is the single most energy-consuming organ per weight in the body,” says Lisa de las Fuentes, M.D. Under some conditions this energy-hungry organ is prone to defects in its energy metabolism that contribute to heart disease, according to research published in the Journal of Nuclear Cardiology by de las Fuentes and colleagues at the School of Medicine.