Medicine & Health

Researchers at WashU Medicine have found a process in which the brain guards against attack by the immune system, opening opportunities to pursue new therapies for diseases such as multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer’s.

Guoyan Zhao, PhD, and Erik Musiek, MD, PhD, both at WashU Medicine, have received a $433,000 grant from the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study brain cells called astrocytes and their roles in neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

WashU Medicine experts in Alzheimer’s disease and multiple sclerosis (MS) find that MS patients are less likely to have amyloid plaques than adults without MS.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have developed a way to study aged neurons in the lab without a brain biopsy, allowing them to accurately model the effects of aging in the development of late-onset Alzheimer’s disease.

A head-to-head comparison of six commercially available blood tests for Alzheimer’s disease led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis reveals that two are accurate enough to replace brain scans and spinal taps in some patients with cognitive impairments.

Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis faculty members David M. Holtzman, MD, and Xiaoying Chen were awarded the inaugural Jeffrey L. Morby Prize from the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund.

Racial disparities in dementia are due to social determinants of health, with genetic ancestry playing no role, according to a new study led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Brian A. Gordon, an assistant professor of radiology at the School of Medicine, has received an award from the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center and the Alzheimer’s Association to study how adverse events in childhood affect the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

Brendan P. Lucey, MD, a professor of neurology at the School of Medicine, has been awarded the 2024 Sleep Science Award from the American Academy of Neurology in recognition of his distinguished contributions to the neurology and neuroscience of sleep.

Naresha Saligrama, an assistant professor of neurology at the School of Medicine, has received a $200,000 grant from the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund to investigate whether other aspects of the immune system also contribute to the disease, specifically T cells.