Medicine & Health

Longtime supporters of the medical school, Debra and George Couch are focused now on helping advance discoveries through precision medicine.

Researchers at the School of Medicine have found that inhibiting a receptor on immune cells called macrophages may help relieve pain in some patients, particularly those with chronic neuropathic pain, such as those with conditions like diabetic neuropathy.

Research led by the School of Medicine has shown, in mice, that genetic material can be delivered to damaged cells in the kidneys, a key step toward developing gene therapy to treat chronic kidney disease.

New research links outdoor air pollution — even at levels deemed safe — to an increased risk of diabetes globally, according to a study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the Veterans Affairs (VA) St. Louis Health Care System.

Washington University researchers have found that immune cells called macrophages can trigger smooth muscle contractions in the intestinal tract, independent of nerve cells. The research in mice holds potential for treating chemotherapy-induced diarrhea.

Deanna Barch, chair of the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences in Arts & Sciences and the Gregory B. Couch Professor of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine, has been awarded a $3.5 million MERIT award from the National Institute of Mental Health of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Tommy John surgery, or reconstruction of the ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) in the elbow, has been dubbed an epidemic among Major League Baseball pitchers. A mechanical engineer at Washington University in St. Louis plans to develop a bioinspired imaging technique to study how damage accumulates in the UCL during loading, or the stress of activating the ligament. This could provide insight into what is progressively happening to these soft tissues when pitchers throw fastballs dozens of times during a game.

New School of Medicine research on childhood depression demonstrates that an interactive therapy involving parents and children can reduce rates of depression and lower the severity of a child’s symptoms.

Doctors sometimes prescribe antipsychotic drugs to treat behavior disorders in youths who don’t respond to traditional medications. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Florida Atlantic University have found that young people taking antipsychotics for as little as 12 weeks experience significant gains in body fat and also become less sensitive to insulin.

School of Medicine researchers have found that the pathways through which various types of brain cells are damaged by Alzheimer’s disease varies, depending on the genes involved. The findings are published in the journal Genome Medicine.