Medicine & Health

A $5 million grant will support research at the School of Medicine aimed at improving breast cancer therapies. The research focuses on HER2-positive breast cancer. Ron Bose, MD, PhD, and Cynthia X. Ma, MD, PhD, are leading the effort.

Researchers at the School of Medicine have discovered, in mice, why a touch can cause such severe itching and, in the process, identified some possible therapeutic targets.

Antibiotics in the environment contribute to drug resistance. But researchers at the School of Medicine have figured out how some soil bacteria turn the drugs into food. The information could lead to new ways to clean up antibiotic-contaminated soil and waterways.

New statistics show rates of autism have continued to increase. However, they have increased only modestly, suggesting there may be a leveling off. Still, researchers found that many children aren’t getting diagnosed until age 4 or older. The new findings stem from research involving the 11-center Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, which includes Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Taking a biopsy of a brain tumor is a complicated and invasive surgical process, but a team of researchers at Washington University in St. Louis is developing a way that allows them to detect tumor biomarkers through a simple blood test.

An investigational drug in clinical trials for rheumatoid arthritis prevents a common, life-threatening side effect of stem cell transplants, finds new School of Medicine research. Studying mice, the researchers found the drug prevented what’s known as graft-versus-host disease.

Scientists from the School of Medicine have developed a new drug compound that shows promise as a future treatment for Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, an inherited, often painful neurodegenerative condition that affects nerves in the hands, arms, feet and legs.

A compound derived from immune cells treats psoriasis in mice and holds promise for other autoimmune diseases, according to a new study from the School of Medicine.

A new School of Medicine study shows that a kind of brain scan called functional connectivity MRI (fcMRI) – which shows how brain regions interact – can reliably detect fundamental differences in how individual brains are wired.

Studying mice, School of Medicine researchers found that a drug can deliver itch relief by targeting particular opioid receptors on neurons in the spinal cord. The drug is being tested for its anti-itch effects in the U.S., but until now scientists haven’t understood how it works.