Medicine & Health

Researchers at the School of Medicine may have found a path toward improving the effectiveness of chemotherapy in people with breast or ovarian cancer caused by defects in one of the BRCA genes. The researchers identified a pair of genes that operate in parallel to BRCA and may increase susceptibility to chemotherapy drugs.

Researchers at the School of Medicine have discovered clues to a particularly deadly form of rejection that can follow lung transplantation. Called antibody-mediated rejection, the condition remains impervious to available treatments and difficult to diagnose. The researchers have identified, in mice, a process that may prevent the condition and lead to possible therapies to treat it.

The Trump Administration released a proposed rule Jan. 31 that could alter the way many drugs are priced and paid for among Medicare and Medicaid plans. The proposed regulation would eliminate the regulatory safe harbor for rebates as they exist today, said Rachel Sachs, an expert on drug policy and pricing at Washington University in St. Louis.

The School of Medicine’s Steven Teitelbaum, MD, has been awarded the King Faisal International Prize in Medicine for his work on bone biology. The award recognizes scientists whose work has major benefits for humanity.

With the help of a grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development, an international team that includes scientists from the School of Medicine is poised to improve cancer care in Guatemala with new state-of-the-art radiation therapy equipment.

The Brown School’s Ross Hammond and Peter Hovmand are both part of the Lancet Commission on Obesity, which released its major new report Jan. 27. The main takeaway? Obesity, climate change and hunger are inextricably linked and must be fought as one challenge.

The Brown School has partnered with Preferred Family Healthcare in St. Louis to launch the Community Academic Partnership on Addiction (CAPA), a teaching, learning and research clinic aimed at addressing substance use disorder. The Brown School’s David Patterson Silver Wolf serves as CAPA’s chief research officer.

U.S. communities with higher smoking rates or lower excise taxes were less likely to adopt retail policies restricting tobacco sales, according to new research from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.

A study in mice and people from the School of Medicine shows that sleep deprivation causes tau levels to rise and tau tangles to spread through the brain, accelerating Alzheimer’s brain damage.

The Brown School and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have received a $2.9 million grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases to study the impact of addressing unmet basic needs among Medicaid beneficiaries with diabetes.