Medicine & Health

​A team of engineers, led by Washington University’s Lihong Wang and postdoctoral researcher Junjie Yao, found that by genetically modifying glioblastoma cancer cells to express BphP1 protein, derived from a bacterium commonly found in soil and water, they could clearly see tiny amounts of live cancer cells as deep as 1 centimeter in tissue using photoacoustic tomography.

Salmon and other freshwater fish and amphibians supercharge their ability to see red and infrared light. Scientists at the School of Medicine have shown that this evolutionary adaptation hinges on the activity of an enzyme that converts vitamin A1 to vitamin A2, enabling the aquatic creatures to more easily navigate murky waters.

School of Medicine scientists have identified a master gene involved in orchestrating the regrowth of peripheral nerves — the nerves that extend from the spinal column to the hands and feet and have the ability to regenerate and help people regain some movement and sensation. Understanding how these nerves regenerate may aid efforts to regrow spinal cord neurons.

A School of Medicine study may aid efforts to tailor smoking-cessation treatments to individual cigarette smokers. Researchers are recruiting 720 smokers whose DNA samples, from saliva, will be analyzed to identify genetic variations that influence smoking behavior, lung cancer risk and the effectiveness of smoking-cessation treatments.

Drug abusers are not completely abandoning prescription opioids for heroin, according to School of Medicine researchers. Instead, many use the two concurrently based on their availability. The researchers’ findings also reveal regional variations in the use of heroin and prescription painkillers.

Matthew A. Powell, MD, a noted gynecologic oncologist and researcher, has been named director of the Division of Gynecologic Oncology in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Washington University School of Medicine.

The retina’s rods and cones allow us to see. But although scientists have an idea of what makes rods perform and flourish, they’ve been somewhat in the dark regarding what keeps cones working and thriving. Now, School of Medicine researchers led by Thomas A. Ferguson, PhD, believe they’re closer to the answer and that their findings may one day help preserve vision in patients with age-related macular degeneration and other retinal diseases.

​​Timothy J. Ley, MD, a leukemia researcher and hematologist at the School of Medicine, has received a seven-year, $6.4 million Outstanding Investigator Award from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The funding will allow him to continue research aimed at understanding the mutations that initiate acute myeloid leukemia (AML), and how they might be targeted with new approaches.

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis, led by Srikanth Singamaneni, PhD, associate professor of materials science in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, are using color-shifting nanoparticles of ​gold, combined with specifically engineered artificial antibodies, to detect biochemical signs of kidney damage.​

Methadone — long used to treat pain and addiction — can be lethal if it lingers too long in the body. New research led by the School of Medicine’s Evan D. Kharasch, MD, PhD, has identified genetic subtypes in people that govern methadone clearance, findings that could help prevent some of the 5,000 methadone-related deaths that occur each year in the United States.