Medicine & Health

Three antibiotics that, individually, are not effective against a drug-resistant staph infection can kill the deadly pathogen when combined as a trio, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. They have killed the bug — methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) — in test tubes and laboratory mice, and believe the same strategy may work in people.

Bacteria aren’t the only non-human invaders to colonize the gut shortly after a baby’s birth. Viruses also set up house there, according to new research led by Lori Holtz, MD, at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Positive mentions on Twitter about hookah smoking may promote the assumption that it is less harmful than smoking cigarettes even though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that hookah smoking has many of the same harmful toxins and carries the same health risks, according to new research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis led by Melissa J. Krauss, seen here with a hookah pipe.

St. Louis College of Pharmacy and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are joining forces to find better, safer and more effective ways to use prescription medications to improve health. Researchers from the two institutions are collaborating to create the Center for Clinical Pharmacology. The center’s director will be Evan D. Kharasch, MD, PhD, the Russell D. and Mary B. Shelden Professor of Anesthesiology and professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics at the School of Medicine.

Washington University researchers and international partners go to great lengths to help solve some of the world’s most pervasive health challenges.

Medical school Professor Gary Weil, MD, leads a large global network of researchers and organizations in the Death to Onchocerciasis and Lymphatic Filariasis (DOLF) Project, which is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Infectious disease expert William Powderly, MD, discusses the need for a sustained investment in a public health infrastructure, not only in the United States but across the world.

William Powderly, MD, wants the Global Health Center to build on research in human nutrition, another Washington University strength.

When it comes to engagement, William Powderly, MD, is encouraged by what he calls “the keen student interest … in addressing global health challenges.”

Working in mice, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis led by Brian N. Finck, PhD (left), and Kyle S. McCommis, PhD, showed they could reduce glucose production in the liver and lower blood sugar levels. Their approach — shutting down a liver protein involved in making glucose — may help treat type 2 diabetes.