Medicine & Health

After fleeing his war-torn homeland, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Justin Serugo was relocated to St. Louis, where he eventually landed a job at the School of Medicine. He now works on a childhood malnutrition project.

L. Lewis Wall, MD, DPhil (right), has received a gold medal for his “meritorius contributions” to medical education at Mekelle University College of Medical and Health Sciences in Mekelle, Ethiopia. He is a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Washington University School of Medicine and of anthropology in Arts & Sciences.

An investigational treatment for Marfan syndrome is as effective as the standard therapy at slowing enlargement of the aorta, the large artery of the heart that delivers blood to the body, according to a new study co-authored by Alan C. Braverman, MD. Slowing aortic growth in Marfan syndrome is important in protecting against the tearing of the aorta.

The antibiotic azithromycin may reduce the risk of recurrent wheezing in infants hospitalized with a common respiratory infection, according to a small pilot study at the School of Medicine. Reduced wheezing may lower an infant’s risk of developing asthma over the next several years, according to the researchers, including first author Avraham Beigelman, MD.

The second season of “The Frontline for Hope,” a documentary series following patients, families and clinicians at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, will premiere Saturday, Nov. 22. The series highlights School of Medicine physicians and staff and St. Louis Children’s patients and their families.

A novel program at the School of Medicine suggests that peer trainers who coach parents over the phone on managing their children’s asthma can sharply reduce the number of days the kids experience symptoms. The program also dramatically decreased ER visits and hospitalizations among low-income children with Medicaid insurance.

Herman Eisen, MD, head of the Department of Molecular Microbiology at Washington University School of Medicine from 1961-73, died Nov. 2, 2014. He was 96.

Rare mutations that shut down a single gene are linked to lower cholesterol levels and a 50 percent reduction in the risk of heart attack, according to new research led by Nathan Stitziel, MD, PhD, of the School of Medicine. The gene, called NPC1L1, is of interest because it is the target of the drug ezetimibe, often prescribed to lower cholesterol.

Washington University, St. Louis Children’s Hospital and the March of Dimes are launching the March of Dimes Prematurity Research Center at Washington University in St. Louis.

A study in which more than 43,000 children were evaluated for head trauma offers an unprecedented picture of how children most frequently suffer head injuries, report physicians at Washington University School of Medicine and the University of California, Davis, School of Medicine.