Medicine & Health

Researchers at the School of Medicine have identified a gene that plays an important role in fertility across multiple species. The study could have implications for understanding human infertility and early menopause.

The School of Medicine is one of 10 sites and a coordinating center forming the Centers for Research in Emerging Infectious Diseases, funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has developed a saliva-based test for COVID-19 that is faster and easier than the swab tests currently in use. The test could help simplify and expand the availability of COVID-19 diagnostic testing across broad populations.

A study led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine details the nature of delays in autism diagnoses for African American children. Such delays can result in significant consequences for young children and their families.

Washington University School of Medicine scientists have developed a vaccine that targets the SARS-CoV-2 virus, can be given in one dose via the nose and is effective in preventing infection in mice susceptible to the novel coronavirus.

COVID-19 caught public health systems in the U.S. unprepared to detect, track and contain the virus. The pandemic has exposed a multitude of deficiencies that require a wholesale reinvention of the field of public health, said four leading experts in a recently published essay.

Gastric bypass surgery is the most effective therapy to treat or reverse type 2 diabetes in severely obese patients. New research from Washington University School of Medicine indicates that weight loss after surgery, rather than the surgery itself, drives metabolic improvements.

Across 30 major U.S. cities, an average of 63% of public schools are located within 1,000 feet — about two city blocks — of a store selling tobacco and e-cigarette products, according to a comprehensive new study mapping tobacco retailers.

School of Medicine researchers have received a $3.9 million grant supporting new technologies and therapeutics to advance a drug to treat debilitating lung diseases, including asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The research is led by Michael J. Holtzman, MD.

In a mouse study, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that an antibody that targets the protein TREM2 empowers tumor-destroying immune cells and improves the effectiveness of cancer immunotherapy.