Medicine & Health

When pre-med students head to China to attend classes at Fudan University and shadow doctors at different medical clinics, they gain a new perspective on medicine.

Feeding premature babies mostly breast milk during the first month of life appears to spur more robust brain growth, compared with babies given little or no breast milk, finds researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Bolstering new federal guidelines that advise primary care doctors to carefully weigh the prescribing of opioid painkillers, two experts at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are recommending that surgeons also consider cutting back on the number of take-home opioid pills prescribed to patients after surgery.

State laws designed to help teens gradually ease into full driving privileges may have an unintended effect: lowering rates of teen alcohol consumption and binge drinking, according to new research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Children whose mothers were nurturing during the preschool years, as opposed to later in childhood, have more robust growth in brain structures associated with learning, memory and stress response than children with less supportive moms, according to new research at Washington University.

Vaccines and therapeutics developed using mice often don’t work as expected in humans. New research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis points to the near-sterile surroundings of laboratory mice as a key reason.

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.