Author: Chris Amelung

ZebrafishTo learn more about how glucose affects human development, Washington University researchers have developed the first vertebrate model of the role of glucose in embryonic brain development. The model is made up of zebrafish. Their transparent embryos develop similarly to humans, except that they grow outside of the mother’s body, where development can be more easily observed. The model provides the foundation for and insight into the roles of nutrition and genetics in human birth defects.

David Kilper/WUSTL PhotoElvin-Lewis inspects a kava plant in the Goldfarb Greenhouse.Ginsengs, echinaceas, and ephedras, oh my! These herbs sound innocuous enough, however, according to Memory Elvin-Lewis, Ph.D., professor of microbiology and ethnobotany in biomedicine in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, Americans are unaware of the dangers inherent in these herbal supplements.

Listed below are this month’s featured news stories. • Diabetes and depression (week of May 3) • Lessen frailty by losing weight (week of May 10) • Smokers get more jolts (week of May 17) • Sunscreen is more than just SPF (week of May 24) • Tumor location doesn’t really matter (week of May 31)

WUSM professor Patrick Lustman meets with a patient.A team of researchers at the School of Medicine has found that an antidepressant medication may reduce the risk of recurrent depression and increase the length of time between depressive episodes in patients with diabetes. Controlling depression in diabetes is important in helping patients manage their blood sugar. As depression improves, glucose levels also tend to improve.

If some patients with heart disease don’t take their doctor’s advice to quit smoking, they are probably going to get “shocking” reminders. A study conducted at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found that heart patients who had implanted defibrillators and also smoked were seven times more likely to have the devices jolt their hearts back into normal rhythm than nonsmokers with the devices.

The recent court ruling that allowed the School of Medicine to maintain control of tissue samples vital to cancer research was a victory for science as well as research participants’ rights, said Medical School Dean Larry Shapiro in a letter to the editors of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Unraveling the mysteries of the human brain, and the mind it gives rise to, is within the reach of modern science, suggests a forthcoming issue of the journal Neuroscience. The special issue explores how sophisticated working memory processes — from the firing of a single neuron to the activation of multiple brain regions — help shape our understanding of the world, says issue co-editor Grega Repovs, a visiting post-doctoral fellow at Washington University in St. Louis.

Listed below are this month’s featured news stories. • New pain management targets (week of Apr. 5) • Finding deadly cancer genes (week of Apr. 12) • Overweight adolescents study (week of Apr. 19) • Glucose-hungry tumors (week of Apr. 26)

Illustration of a lung volume reduction surgeryIn many cases of advanced emphysema, reducing the size of the lungs surgically has been shown to improve both survival and quality of life. But some emphysema patients can’t tolerate this bilateral operation. Now a study conducted by researchers at the School of Medicine and the University of Pennsylvania Health System has shown that unilateral, or one-sided, lung volume reduction surgery has significant benefits, offering help to those who are not candidates for the bilateral surgery.

Unraveling the mysteries of the human brain, and the mind it gives rise to, is within the reach of modern science, suggests a forthcoming issue of the journal Neuroscience. The special issue explores how sophisticated working memory processes — from the firing of a single neuron to the activation of multiple brain regions — help shape our understanding of the world, says issue co-editor Grega Repovs, a visiting post-doctoral fellow at Washington University in St. Louis. More…