Medicine & Health

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.

Three researchers at Washington University School of Medicine have been elected to the American Academy of Microbiology in recognition of their scientific achievements and original contributions that have advanced the field of microbiology.

Dolores B. Njoku, MD, a noted clinician, researcher and mentor, has been named director of pediatric anesthesiology at the School of Medicine and anesthesiologist-in-chief at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. She also will be the new Rudolph L. and Mary Frances Wise Endowed Chair in Pediatric Anesthesiology.

Five physician-scientists at the School of Medicine have been elected members of the American Society for Clinical Investigation in recognition of original, creative and independent investigations in the clinical or allied sciences of medicine.

Macy Sprunger, a graduate student in Meredith Jackrel’s lab in the Department of Chemistry in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, won a three-year $136,560 National Research Service Award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Such fellowships support predoctoral students conducting research in scientific health-related fields.

Anthony Odibo, MD, an internationally respected maternal-fetal medicine expert, has been named director of the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine & Ultrasound in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at the School of Medicine.

New research from Washington University School of Medicine suggests that nursing mothers who receive a COVID-19 vaccine may also protect their babies from the virus.