Medicine & Health

Combining a drug for rheumatoid arthritis with one that targets the chikungunya virus can eliminate the signs of chikungunya arthritis in mice in the disease’s earliest stage, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Allison A. King, MD, PhD, a highly regarded sickle cell disease researcher at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has received a six-year, $4.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to further her investigations into the disease.

Early predictors of anxiety and depression may be evident in the brain even at birth, suggests a study at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Using immature stem cells to create a miniature model of the gut in the laboratory, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of Pittsburgh have determined how infection-causing enteroviruses enter the intestine.

Researchers at the School of Medicine have developed an online “knowledgebase” intended for the gathering and organization of the vast body of knowledge known as cancer genomics.

Researchers at the School of Medicine have shown that levels of tau protein can be reduced – and some of the neurological damage caused by tau even reversed ­– by a synthetic molecule that targets genetic instructions. The findings are important for Alzheimer’s and other neurological diseases.

School of Medicine scientists have exploited a common weak point in cancer cell metabolism, forcing tumor cells to reveal the backup fuel supply routes they rely on when this weak point is compromised. Mapping these secondary routes, the researchers also identified drugs that block them.

New research at the School of Medicine and Siteman Cancer Center have found that damage to acid-secreting cells alone doesn’t jump-start the transformation of healthy cells into precancerous cells — at least in a mouse model.

A new technique will help biologists tinker with genes, whether the goal is to turn cells into tiny factories churning out medicines, modify crops to grow with limited water or study the effects of a gene on human health.

Michael S. Kinch, associate vice chancellor and professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics in the School of Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis, is director of the Centers for Research Innovation in Biotechnology & Drug Discovery at the university. He is also author of the newly published “Prescription for Change,” an analysis of the looming crisis in the pharmaceutical industry.