Medicine & Health

A breast cancer vaccine developed at the School of Medicine is safe in patients with metastatic breast cancer, results of an early clinical trial indicate. Preliminary evidence from the small clinical trial, led by William Gillanders, MD, also suggests that the vaccine primed the patients’ immune systems to attack tumor cells and helped slow the cancer’s progression.

Science textbooks say we can’t see infrared light. Like X-rays and radio waves, infrared light waves are longer than the light waves in the visual spectrum. But an international team of researchers co-led by Frans Vinberg, PhD, (left) and Vladimir J. Kefalov, PhD, has found that under certain conditions, the retina can sense infrared light after all.

In the near future, physicians may treat some cancer patients with personalized vaccines that spur their immune systems to attack malignant tumors. New research led by scientists at the School of Medicine including senior author Robert Schreiber, PhD, has brought the approach one step closer to reality.

Neighborhood features such as bike facilities and low crime rates are associated with increased leisure and workplace-related physical activity, according to a new study from the Prevention Research Center at Washington University in St. Louis.

Three faculty members at Washington University in St. Louis have been named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society. They are Mary C. Dinauer, MD, PhD, David M. Holtzman, MD, and Robert G. Kranz, PhD.

A research team led by Washington University endocrinologist Fumihiko Urano, MD, PhD, (right) and first author Simin Lu, PhD student, (left) has discovered that a commonly prescribed muscle relaxant may be an effective treatment for Wolfram syndrome, a rare but devastating form of diabetes.

A protein that stimulates the brain to awaken from sleep may be a target for preventing Alzheimer’s disease, a study by School of Medicine researchers suggests. David M. Holtzman, MD, head of the Department of Neurology, is the study’s senior author.

William Hawkins, MD, a noted pancreatic cancer surgeon, has been named chief of the Section of Hepatobiliary-Pancreatic and Gastrointestinal Surgery, and the Neidorff Family and Robert C. Packman Professor at the School of Medicine.

Initial results of an innovative study may significantly change how some patients are evaluated after a stroke, according to School of Medicine researchers. Shown is the study’s senior author, Maurizio Corbetta, MD.

New research by Ting Wang, PhD, (left) and graduate student Vasavi Sundaram has uncovered some striking differences in the genomes of humans and mice that can help scientists determine when a mouse may be a good stand-in to study human biology and disease.