Medicine & Health

Researchers have identified a potential way to prevent chronic urinary tract infections (UTIs). Their research points to a key protein that bacteria use to latch onto the bladder and cause UTIs, according to scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Vaccinating mice against the protein reduces the ability of bacteria to cause severe disease.

A team at the School of Medicine is evaluating a new immunotherapy against acute myeloid leukemia. The treatment harnesses the immune system’s “natural killer” cells, putting them through a training period in the lab to help them attack leukemia cells in the blood.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found another possible explanation for some of the symptoms of fragile X syndrome. The study, published Sept. 20 in Cell Reports, provides a new way of looking at the underlying causes of the syndrome and suggests new targets for treatment.

New research from Washington University in St. Louis shows that the protein behind Alzheimer’s disease shape-shifts, changing its internal structure in order to infiltrate brain cells and become toxic.

A $13 million grant to study how the Ebola virus replicates has been awarded to a team led by Gaya Amarasinghe, associate professor of pathology and immunology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

A survey of parents in Missouri and Illinois reveals that about half of the children in the families queried spent time in homes that have firearms. However, few reported talking about gun safety with their children’s pediatricians.

In a landmark national study, scientists will use advanced brain imaging on more than 10,000 children, along with interviews and behavioral tests, to determine how experiences, together with a child’s changing biology, affect brain development.

Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis will collaborate with the pharmaceutical companies AbbVie, Biogen, and Eli Lilly & Co. to investigate the buildup and clearance of tau protein in the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease.

Scientists have implicated a type of stem cell in the calcification of blood vessels that is common in patients with chronic kidney disease. The study, led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, appeared Sept. 8 in the journal Cell Stem Cell.

They are the tiny motors present in many of the human body’s most complex systems: cilia and flagella move liquids such as cerebrospinal fluid and mucus past the cell surface, and throughout the body. Both are of vital importance to human health, but how they actually move remains a mystery. A team from Washington University in St. Louis has been awarded a 5-year, $1.25 million grant to study the mechanics of these tiny organelles.