Medicine & Health

A new study led by the School of Medicine shows that most Americans spend a lot of time sitting, despite public health messages that prolonged sitting is unhealthy. Such inactivity increases the risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers.

A policy change regarding the rules of lung distributions for transplants has had several unintended consequences, according to a new study from the School of Medicine.

Removing one gene caused normal muscle muscle fibers to grow to three times their normal size. Researchers at the School of Medicine have found that targeting a protein related to that gene with lithium can reduce muscle wasting in a rare form of muscular dystrophy.

Pregnancy tests can sometimes give a false negative result to women several weeks into their pregnancies, according to research by Ann Gronowski, professor of pathology and immunology at the School of Medicine. Her findings led the FDA to change its standards for evaluating new pregnancy tests, but old tests with the false-negative problem are still on the market.

The Washington University School of Medicine will provide $100 million in scholarship funding, allowing as many as half of its medical students to attend tuition-free and providing others with partial support. Efforts to enhance the medical education program also will benefit.

The School of Medicine has led a new study showing that new Medicare reimbursement rules reduce financial penalties for safety-net hospitals. The change shifts some of the financial burden away from hospitals that care for the most vulnerable patients.

An international team led by Gary Weil, MD, of the School of Medicine is poised to help eliminate two disabling tropical diseases as public health problems. A large grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will fund clinical trials and other studies aimed at preventing new cases of elephantiasis and river blindness.

Philanthropists Andrew and Barbara Taylor and the Crawford Taylor Foundation have committed $10 million to the School of Medicine to continue research to investigate the scientific underpinnings of psychiatric illnesses, with the goal of improving diagnosis and treatment.

Centene Corp. and the School of Medicine announced a partnership April 8 to transform and accelerate research into treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, breast cancer, diabetes and obesity. As part of the partnership, Centene will fund up to $100 million over 10 years in research at the university.

Robert W. Gereau, the Dr. Seymour and Rose T. Brown Professor of Anesthesiology at Washington University School of Medicine, is working to discover the genetic and molecular roots of pain, with a goal of reversing the processes that cause pain and make it so disabling.