Author: Julia Evangelou Strait

Innate differences in immunity can be detected at birth, according to new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. First author Kaharu Sumino, MD, and her colleagues say babies with a better innate response to viruses have fewer respiratory illnesses in the first year of life.

Surgeons at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, led by Susan E. Mackinnon, MD, have restored some hand function in a quadriplegic patient with a spinal cord injury at the C7 vertebra, the lowest bone in the neck. Instead of operating on the spine itself, the surgeons rerouted working nerves in the upper arms. These nerves still “talk” to the brain because they attach to the spine above the injury.

Led by Jasvindar Singh, MD, doctors at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are seeking volunteers for a clinical trial testing an investigational device in patients with severe high blood pressure that can’t be controlled with aggressive medical treatments.

Results of a new study from Washington University’s Drug Discovery Center demonstrate the feasibility of a novel strategy in drug discovery: screening large numbers of existing drugs — often already approved for other uses — to see which ones activate genes that boost natural immunity.

Results of one of the largest studies of heart failure to date show that warfarin is no better than aspirin in reducing the combined risks of brain hemorrhage, stroke and death in most heart failure patients. Clinicians now have reassurance that aspirin is safe for heart failure patients with a normal heart rhythm, according to study co-author Douglas L. Mann, MD.

Growing up in the picturesque town of Sandomierz in southeastern Poland, Lilianna Solnica-Krezel, PhD, was a serious student and an uncommonly avid reader. Today, Solnica-Krezel, professor and head of the Department of Developmental Biology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, is a leading expert in understanding the earliest stages of life’s development. 

More than half of all cancer is preventable, and society has the knowledge to act on this information today, according to Graham A. Colditz, MD, DrPH, the Niess-Gain Professor and other public health researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Siteman Cancer Center. 

A new drug makes chemotherapy more effective in treating acute myeloid leukemia, a cancer of the white blood cells, according to John F. DiPersio, MD, PhD, and his colleagues at Washington University. Instead of attacking these cells directly, the drug helps drive them out of the bone marrow and into the bloodstream, where they are more vulnerable to chemotherapy.

A program that helps obese patients improve healthy behaviors is associated with modest weight loss and improved blood pressure control in a high-risk, low-income group, according to Graham A. Colditz, MD, DrPH, at Washington University School of Medicine. Compared to those receiving usual care, the lifestyle intervention slowed increases in weight and blood pressure in this population of high-risk patients.

Doctors at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, working with Shriners Hospital for Children and other institutions, have identified a promising new treatment for a rare and sometimes life-threatening bone disorder that can affect infants and young children. Known as hypophosphatasia, the condition upsets bone metabolism, blocking important minerals such as calcium from depositing in the skeleton.