Medicine & Health

Long before Alzheimer’s disease can be diagnosed clinically, increasing difficulties building cognitive maps of new surroundings may herald the eventual clinical onset of the disorder, finds new research from Washington University in St. Louis.

Delaying radiation therapy too long after surgery significantly increases the risk of recurrent tumors in women treated for very early, or what is referred to as “stage 0,” breast cancer, according to new research at the School of Medicine.

Mice that vocalize in a repetitive, halting pattern similar to human stuttering may provide insight into the condition, according to new School of Medicine research. They can help scientists understand the disorder’s molecular and neurological basis.

As part of a clinical trial at the School of Medicine, lung transplant surgeons are evaluating whether a sophisticated device can recondition subpar donor lungs to make the organs suitable for transplant. The device has potential to expand the number of donor lungs that can be transplanted, potentially helping the 1,480 patients currently waiting for lung transplants.

A research team at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has established a mouse model for testing of vaccines and therapeutics to battle Zika virus.

New research from David Gutmann, MD, PhD, may help doctors determine which medical issues are likely to manifest in patients with the inherited cancer syndrome neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1). The findings indicate that varying mutations in the NF1 gene may lead to different clinical outcomes.

A study from the School of Medicine suggests that bacteriophages made of RNA – a close chemical cousin of DNA – likely play a much larger role in shaping the bacterial makeup of worldwide habitats than previously recognized.

New research from the School of Medicine indicates that much of that diabetes-related vision loss may result from nerve cell injury that occurs long before any blood vessels are damaged. The finding may lead to new approaches to treating it.

Patients with a rare, genetic form of diabetes often are misdiagnosed as having type 2 diabetes because the two share symptoms. But new research at the School of Medicine suggests that treating such patients with therapies designed for type 2 diabetes is potentially harmful and guidelines need to change.

The American health care system must do a better job of systematically detecting and treating mental health problems within outpatient primary care clinics, especially those that serve vulnerable populations, finds a study led by Darrell Hudson, assistant professor at the Brown School.