Medicine & Health

Although viruses such as herpes simplex can infect the eye’s cornea and Zika virus has been found in corneal tissue and tears, new School of Medicine research suggests the cornea can resist infection from the novel coronavirus.

The School of Medicine is a testing site for a phase 3 clinical research study to evaluate the safety and efficacy of an investigational COVID-19 vaccine candidate from the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies. The school will enroll up to 500 adults ages 18 and older in the St. Louis region.

A new, international phase 3 clinical trial led by the Washington University School of Medicine and funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will investigate the potential of three drugs to tame a dangerous inflammatory response seen in some COVID-19 patients.

School of Medicine researchers have received an $8.5 million grant to study the role of gut viruses in inflammatory bowel disease. Tools developed in the course of the project could accelerate research into other roles of the virome in health and disease.

The 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded Oct. 5 to three scientists for groundbreaking research that led to the discovery of the hepatitis C virus. One of those scientists — virologist Charles M. Rice — conducted his seminal work while on the faculty of Washington University School of Medicine.

School of Medicine researchers have received renewed National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding for the Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center. The center’s researchers study genetic and environmental factors that contribute to developmental disabilities.

Researchers have identified two antibodies that protect mice against lethal infections of influenza B virus. Together with an antibody that targets influenza A, the antibodies potentially could contribute to a drug to treat almost all flu cases.

School of Medicine researchers have discovered that a molecule produced by the immune system acts on the brain to change the behavior of mice. The findings help illuminate a surprising mind-body connection.

School of Medicine scientists have created a PET imaging agent that detects signs of inflammation. Such a tracer could aid diagnosis and study of diseases ranging from cardiovascular disease to cancer to COVID-19.

Transplant surgeons and researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have received two grants totaling $10 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study how immune cells contribute to organ rejection, with the aim of improving the viability of organs after transplant.