Medicine & Health

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine have developed an imaging agent that could help refine assessments of kidney health, potentially salvaging some otherwise discarded donor kidneys.

WashU engineers have developed a biosensing microneedle patch that can be applied to the skin, capture a biomarker and, thanks to its unprecedented sensitivity, allow clinicians to detect the biomarker’s presence.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that a protein involved in regulating lipid levels in the liver and blood also promotes development and progression of fatty liver disease and liver cancer in mice.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that patients with Barrett’s esophagus may be vulnerable to coronavirus infection from what they swallow.

Faculty experts from across Washington University in St. Louis draw upon their research, their instruction, their experience and their thought leadership to proffer insight and ideas for the new administration, the new beginning.

Dr. Karen Joynt Maddox expects the new Biden/Kamala Harris administration to retool and reinforce Obamacare, rather than the previous administration’s failed attempts to repeal and replace. She offers areas ripe for both quick and gradual change: reinstating health discrimination protection, investing in insurance enrollment, creating the “public option,” and broadening competition in insurance markets.

School of Medicine researchers have received an NIH grant to study factors that prevent pregnant women from getting tested for COVID-19; to evaluate the importance of testing regularly during pregnancy; and to see whether pregnant women with COVID-19 need specialized care.

A new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggests that measuring mitochondrial DNA in the blood of patients with COVID-19 can help predict which patients are at highest risk of severe disease, requiring more intensive care.

New School of Medicine research indicates that allergens in the environment often are to blame for episodes of acute itch in eczema patients. Researchers found the itch signals are being carried to the brain along a previously unrecognized pathway that current drugs don’t target.

Five faculty members at the School of Medicine have been elected fellows of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA). They are Ernie-Paul Barrette, MD, Jeffrey Henderson, MD, PhD, David Hunstad, MD, Stephen Liang, MD, and Hilary Reno, MD, PhD.