Medicine & Health

Eating a Western diet impairs the gut’s immune system in ways that could increase risk of infection and inflammatory bowel disease, according to a study from the Washington University School of Medicine and Cleveland Clinic.

Linda J. Pike and Alexander S. Holehouse, in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at the School of Medicine, and Gary J. Patti, in Arts & Sciences and the School of Medicine, received a four-year grant totaling $1.45 million from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Researchers at the School of Medicine have received an $11 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to find new ways to combat the growing threat of antibiotic resistance.

Michael D. Darcy, MD, professor of radiology and associate professor of surgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been awarded a Gold Medal from the Society of Interventional Radiology.

Michael Evan Hughes, a neuroscientist and chronobiologist highly respected for his research at the School of Medicine, died May 4 at his home in St. Louis after a six-year battle with brain cancer. He was 41. A public celebration of life will be held Saturday, May 8, in Olivette, Mo.

J. Gmerice Hammond, MD, a cardiologist and health policy research fellow in the Cardiovascular Division at Washington University School of Medicine, has received a Merck Fellowship Research Award from the Association of Black Cardiologists and the American College of Cardiology.

Elliot Elson, of Washington University School of Medicine, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Election to the academy is considered one of the highest honors that can be awarded to a U.S. scientist or engineer.

The School of Medicine received a $1.3 million grant from The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust to support the work of Parakkal Deepak, MBBS, and Alfred H.J. Kim, MD, PhD. They will study antibody responses after vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 in patients with inflammatory bowel disease and other autoimmune diseases.

In the first clinical trial of nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN), School of Medicine researchers have found that the compound previously demonstrated to counteract aspects of aging and improve metabolic health in mice also has clinically relevant effects in people.

A new study from the School of Medicine shows that even mild cases of COVID-19 increase the risk of death in the six months following diagnosis. The comprehensive study also catalogues the wide-ranging and long-term health problems often triggered by the infection, even among those not hospitalized.