Medicine & Health

Buoyed by a $5.1 million grant, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis will study novel strategies to reduce infections acquired in health-care settings and to limit the spread of dangerous antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The funding is part of $26 million awarded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to five academic medical centers as part of a patient-safety effort known as the Prevention Epicenters Program.

New research from the School of Medicine shows that long-term neurological problems in those with West Nile Virus may be due to the patient’s own immune system destroying parts of the neurons in the brain. It suggests that intervening in the immune response may help prevent brain damage so patients can recover.

The School of Medicine has received a $4.3 million award from the Alzheimer’s Association to expand a major international clinical trial evaluating whether drugs can prevent Alzheimer’s disease in patients genetically predisposed to develop the devastating disease at a young age.

Researchers at the School of Medicine have found that a program aimed at helping abused and neglected children and their families is improving outcomes for kids and providing children with stable home environments as their cases move through the courts.

A team at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has identified a single gene pathway that is vital for Zika and other flaviviruses to spread infection between cells.

New research from the School of Medicine suggests that mothers who eat high-fat, high-sugar diets can predispose multiple generations to metabolic problems, even if their offspring consume healthy diets.

As young people reach adulthood, preferences for sweet foods typically decline. But for people with obesity, research from the School of Medicine suggests that the drop-off may not be as steep and that the brain’s reward system operates differently in obese people than in thinner people. The findings are published in the journal Diabetes.

New Alzheimer’s disease research details a technique that speedily measures levels in the brain of a damaging protein fragment, and insight into why mutations in a specific gene increase the risk of developing the disease. Both studies, from researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, are available online in The Journal of Experimental Medicine.

Examining databases of proteins’ 3-D shapes, scientists at School of Medicine have identified more than 850 DNA mutations that appear to be linked to cancer. The information may expand the number of cancer patients who can benefit from existing drugs. The study, published June 13 in Nature Genetics, detailed a list of the mutations and associated drugs that may work against them.

With research that points to potential therapeutic targets for autoimmune diseases, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified genetic master switches that turn up – or down – the activity of specific types of immune cells.