Medicine & Health

A new study led by the School of Medicine suggests that circadian rhythm — the natural cycle of physical and other changes our bodies go through in a 24-hour period — may affect the body’s response to the COVID-19 vaccine. The research suggests that vaccines given around the middle of the day may prevent more infections.

Tsuyoshi Kaneko, MD, chief of the cardiac surgery section in the Department of Surgery at the School of Medicine, has been named the John M. Shoenberg Chair in Cardiovascular Disease.

Four faculty members of Washington University in St. Louis were elected members of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the academy announced April 19. They are Jean Allman, Scott J. Hultgren, Tristram R. Kidder and Lilianna Solnica-Krezel.

A clinical trial led by the School of Medicine has shown that the investigational drug motixafortide — when combined with the standard therapy for mobilizing stem cells —may improve stem cell transplantation for multiple myeloma patients.

From the Civil War to the 21st century, Black women have fought to become physicians. A new book by Jasmine Brown, AB ’18, tells the story of the barriers Black women pursuing a career in medicine have faced throughout ­history.

Researchers at the School of Medicine have found a creative way to make a vaccine for norovirus, the leading cause of foodborne infections, by piggybacking on rotavirus, an unrelated virus for which there are already several highly effective vaccines.

Neuropathologist Sonika Dahiya, MD, a professor of pathology and immunology and chief of the neuro-oncology section at the School of Medicine, has been named to the Working Committee of the Consortium to Inform Molecular and Practical Approaches to CNS Tumor Taxonomy.

School of Medicine researchers have identified specific proteins that may help predict which COVID-19 patients may need to be placed on ventilators to breathe and which are most likely to die of the virus.

Lilianna Solnica-Krezel, the Alan A. and Edith L. Wolff Distinguished Professor and head of the Department of Developmental Biology at the School of Medicine, is to receive the 2023 Edwin G. Conklin Medal from the Society for Developmental Biology.

Vaccinating people with updated boosters as new variants of the virus that causes COVID-19 emerge could shore up population immunity even as the virus mutates, according to School of Medicine research. Such action could prevent another deadly COVID-19 wave.