Medicine & Health

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.

Researchers at the School of Medicine studying leishmaniasis, a tropical disease that kills tens of thousands of people every year, believe they have found an explanation for the seemingly paradoxical connection between long-term infection and long-term immunity.

As the Zika epidemic took hold, leaders at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) realized they needed to learn about the virus quickly. They started phoning select scientists, and offered funding for Zika research. The School of Medicine answered the call

A multifaceted study — one of three major approaches School of Medicine researchers are using to unravel the physical and psychological underpinnings of autism — aims to detect, treat and even reverse the disorder.

How graduate and medical students from Washington University’s Young Scientist Program are helping share science with area students. The program has been in place more than 25 years.

Many with psychiatric problems want to quit smoking, but psychiatrists and caseworkers typically don’t prescribe medications to help them or refer them to services aimed at smoking cessation, researchers at the School of Medicine and BJC Behavioral Health in St. Louis have found.

Welders exposed to airborne manganese at estimated levels below federal occupational safety standards exhibit neurological problems similar to Parkinson’s disease, according to School of Medicine research. The more they are exposed to manganese-containing welding fumes, the faster the workers’ signs and symptoms worsen. The findings, published Dec. 28, suggest current safety standards may not adequately protect welders.

A new study by the School of Medicine, published Dec. 22 in Nature Communications, helps explain why development of a better vaccine for tuberculosis has been stymied.

Scientists at the School of Medicine have detailed the structure of a molecule that has been implicated in Alzheimer’s disease. Knowing the shape of the molecule — and how that shape may be disrupted by certain genetic mutations — can help in understanding how Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases develop and how to prevent and treat them.