Medicine & Health

Some mammals and birds have a clever way to preserve energy and heat by going into torpor, during which their body temperature and metabolic rate drop. Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis safely and noninvasively induced a torpor-like state in mice and rats by using ultrasound to stimulate the hypothalamus preoptic area in the brain.

A mouse study at Washington University School of Medicine points to data that could be key to developing an effective vaccine for the bacterium Klebsiella pneumoniae. The bug is often resistant to antibiotics, making it difficult to treat in some.

Diabetes researchers at the School of Medicine have learned why islet beta cells produced from stem cells may not be as good at making insulin in response to blood sugar. The findings could improve treatment for those with insulin-dependent diabetes.

Researchers at the McKelvey School of Engineering discovered how to use focused ultrasound with microbubbles to examine the glymphatic system. Impairments in this system may contribute to brain diseases, such as neurodegenerative diseases and stroke.

A team led by Washington University in St. Louis has been awarded $1 million over two years from the National Science Foundation’s Regional Innovation Engines program to help advance neuroscience technologies.

The School of Medicine has received two grants totaling $22.5 million to help lead national efforts to understand how DNA changes create differences in genomes across tissues within the same person.

Researchers have published a new set of reference human genome sequences that reveals far more genomic diversity from different populations of people than was available previously. The School of Medicine serves as the national coordinating center for the program, called the Human Pangenome Reference Consortium.

Ophthalmology and health-equity advocacy have uncovered a third passion for Alexandra Zdonczyk: St. Louis. In July, Zdonczyk will begin her residency in ophthalmology at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

Scientists at the Center for Clinical Pharmacology have identified a potential pathway to pain relief that neither triggers addiction nor causes hallucinations.

Pamela K. Woodard, MD, a national leader in cardiothoracic imaging, has been named head of the Department of Radiology, director of the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology and the Elizabeth E. Mallinckrodt Professor of Radiology at the School of Medicine.