Medicine & Health

There have been more than 3.5 million requests for assistance to 2-1-1 help lines around the United States since the coronavirus pandemic hit this spring. The impact was immediate and dramatic, said a Brown School researcher who tracks calls to 2-1-1 help lines across the U.S.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine have shown that levels of a specific protein in the blood rise as amyloid plaques form in the brain. The discovery could pave the way toward a blood-based test to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease before symptoms appear.

To help efforts to find drugs and vaccines for COVID-19, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine developed a hybrid virus that will enable more scientists to enter the fight against the pandemic. The researchers genetically modified a mild virus.

A new study from Washington University School of Medicine has found that mice infected with Chikungunya virus get less sick and are less likely to transmit the virus to mosquitoes if they have healthy gut microbiomes.

A team of wildlife biologists and infectious disease experts, including some at the School of Medicine, propose in an article published in Science a decentralized, global wildlife biosurveillance system to identify animal viruses that have the potential to cause human disease – before the next pandemic emerges.

Parasitologist L. David Sibley at the School of Medicine is leading an international effort to find drugs to cure toxoplasmosis, a parasitic disease characterized by vision problems and brain complications.

To help address the international social, economic and public health ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic, the McDonnell International Scholars Academy recently awarded seed grants to kick-start research projects led by Washington University faculty members and their international collaborators.

The School of Medicine’s Jennifer A. Philips, MD, PhD, has set up a screening platform to test compounds for activity against the COVID-19 virus. Her lab has screened dozens of compounds and is prepared to accept more suggestions of promising candidate molecules.

The crowdsourced supercomputing project Folding@home, based at the School of Medicine, shifted focus months ago to coronavirus research. Now, units at Washington University and elsewhere, individuals and companies have joined the effort.

Over the years, the global HIV response has provided the modern medical community with valuable experience about responding to outbreaks and preventing the spread of the disease. These lessons should inform our approach to COVID-19 — especially in lower-income and Black communities, according to Shanti Parikh, associate professor of anthropology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.