Author: Ken Duenke

Every moment we live, cells in our bodies are dying. One type of cell death activates an immune response while another type doesn’t. Now researchers at the School of Medicine and St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis have figured out how some dying cells signal the immune system. They say the finding eventually could have important implications in the treatment of autoimmune diseases and cancer.

The Department of Athletics finished second in the 2007-08 United States Sports Academy Directors’ Cup Division III standings, as announced by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics, United States Sports Academy and USA Today. The second-place finish is the highest in school history and the Bears’ sixth-straight top 10 appearance: 2002-03 (fifth), 2003-04 […]

Children with sickle cell disease often face severe pain, organ damage, recurrent strokes and repeated, prolonged hospital stays. Although there are medical interventions that can lessen the symptoms, there is no cure. Researchers at the School of Medicine are leading a nationwide, multicenter clinical trial to determine the effectiveness of transplanting blood stem cells from unrelated donors into children with severe sickle cell disease.

If a new local company succeeds, cancer and drug researchers soon may have a novel, inexpensive and extremely precise method for monitoring cell activity. This could speed development of treatments and methods for diagnosing cancer as well as open up new areas of basic medical research. PixelEXX Systems, founded by scientists at Washington University, is developing a prototype imaging device in hopes of reaching the market in 2011.

The sound of a noisy Chicago restaurant during the breakfast rush — the clang of plates and silverware and the clamor of many voices — was the crucial test of new hearing aid technology in a study conducted by researchers at the School of Medicine. The study showed that the hearing aids worked well in a noisy environment — the most challenging test for a hearing aid.

Medical science may be a significant step closer to climbing into the driver’s seat of an important class of immune cells, researchers at the School of Medicine report in Nature Immunology.

Compact, bedside brain-activity monitors detected most seizures in at-risk infants, researchers at the School of Medicine showed. That means the compact units could assist clinicians in monitoring for electrical seizures until confirmation with conventional EEG (electroencephalography), the researchers assert in an article published in the June issue of Pediatrics.

MurphyResearchers have shown that they can put mouse embryonic stem cells to work building the heart, potentially moving medical science a significant step closer to a new generation of heart disease treatments that use human stem cells. Kenneth Murphy is senior author of the research at the School of Medicine.

Saturday can be the worst enemy for our waistlines, according to researchers at the School of Medicine. They found that study subjects on strict diet and exercise programs tend to lose weight more slowly than expected because they eat more on weekends than during the week.

Saturday can be the worst enemy for our waistlines, according to researchers at the School of Medicine. They found that study subjects on strict diet and exercise programs tend to lose weight more slowly than expected because they eat more on weekends than during the week.