Author: Ken Duenke

Project ARK, the St. Louis area’s only organization that coordinates medical care, social support and prevention services for children, youth, young adults, women and families living with or at risk for HIV infection, has received a $6.7 million, five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Two recently discovered control networks that govern voluntary brain activity in adults start life as a single network in children, report neuroscientists at the School of Medicine. Researchers previously showed the networks supervise most goal-oriented brain activity, enlisting the specialized talents of multiple brain regions for goal-oriented tasks as diverse as reading a word, listening to music or searching for a star. They were surprised to find the two networks merged together in children.

Photo by Jason MerrillWashington University Orthopedics and Barnes-Jewish Hospital have completed construction of a new $13 million outpatient orthopedic facility. The new Washington University Orthopedics and Barnes-Jewish Hospital Outpatient Orthopedic Center opens with its first full clinic day July 30. The first surgical procedure took place on July 25.

Twenty-one years after they first described a fatal genetic disorder in Missouri and Arkansas families, scientists at the School of Medicine have linked the condition to mutations in a gene known as TREX1. The study appears online in Nature Genetics. The identification will accelerate efforts to understand and treat retinal vasculopathy with cerebral leukodystrophy (RVCL), a rare condition that usually goes unrecognized or is misdiagnosed.

Researchers at the School of Medicine have found further evidence linking a method used to deliver gene therapy in humans with the development of liver tumors in mice. The new research, published in the July 27 journal Science, suggests that ferrying a corrective gene into mice using a disabled virus – an adeno-associated virus (AAV) – inadvertently inserts mutations into the mouse DNA that initiate tumor growth.

An improved approach to gene therapy may one day treat some of the nearly 200 inherited forms of blindness, scientists at the School of Medicine suggest this week. In a paper published online by Public Library of Science ONE, researchers take initial steps toward filling a gap in the toolkit for treating blindness by identifying DNA elements that control when and where genes linked to blindness are turned on.

Itching for a better anti-itch remedy? Your wish may soon be granted now that scientists at the School of Medicine have identified the first gene for the itch sensation in the central nervous system. The discovery could rapidly lead to new treatments directly targeting itchiness and providing relief for chronic and severe itching.

Bracey”The situation does not look good for Michael Vick and his co-defendants,” says Christopher A. Bracey, associate professor of law and of African and African-American studies at Washington University in St. Louis. “Vick’s indictment on charges related to dog fighting contains multiple allegations of overt acts, and only one needs to be proven in order to sustain a conviction.” Bracey says that this indictment raises a number of cultural and legal questions. He is following the case and is available for interviews.

Photo by David KilperSeventeen students from six area schools comprised the inaugural class of the Sam Fox School’s new K-12 architecture program.

A new two-week Summer Institute in U.S. Law for international students July 22-Aug. 3 at the School of Law will draw undergraduate law students from several countries.