Medicine & Health

In school-age children previously diagnosed with depression as preschoolers, a key brain region involved in emotion is smaller than in their peers who were not depressed, scientists at the School of Medicine have shown.

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a lawsuit targeting federal subsidies designed to help millions of Americans afford health insurance. The case is dubious on its merits, says Timothy D. McBride, PhD, professor at Washington University in St. Louis’ Brown School and a noted health economist, citing legal precedent as reason for allowing the subsidies to continue.

Washington University in St. Louis has been awarded a grant from the Amgen Foundation that will provide hands-on laboratory experience to undergraduate students through the Amgen Scholars Program. This marks the fifth year that Washington University is participating in the program.

Cats and humans have shared the same households for at least 9,000 years, but we still know very little about how our feline friends became domesticated. An analysis of the cat genome by School of Medicine researchers reveals some surprising clues. Pictured is a blue Abyssinian cat.

Allyson R. Zazulia, MD, is the new associate dean for continuing medical education (CME) at the School of Medicine. In her new role, Zazulia will oversee and administer learning opportunities for practicing physicians. This includes maintaining accreditation and developing new CME programs.

A new center at the School of Medicine aims to tackle the challenges of feeding the world’s rapidly expanding population and improving global health by linking efforts to develop more nutritious foods with discoveries gleaned from the gut microbiome.

Washington University’s Bear Cub grant program helps researchers make the leap from bench scientists to budding entrepreneurs. The application deadline is Nov. 30.

Today’s freshmen students have a 50 percent chance of living to see their 100th birthdays. They are in the middle of a demographic revolution that will shape every aspect of their lives. A new interdisciplinary course for freshmen introduced this fall, “When I’m Sixty-Four: Transforming Your Future,” aims to prepare students for this aging revolution and to encourage them to examine their present and future lives in more detail.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has boosted funding for the first large-scale clinical trial aimed at identifying drugs to stop or slow Alzheimer’s disease in people who are destined to get it. The trial is led by Randall Bateman, MD.

Improved communication among health-care providers during shift changes reduced injuries due to medical errors by 30 percent, according to a multicenter study. The research involved St. Louis Children’s Hospital and eight other academic medical centers. Pictured is study co-author F. Sessions Cole, MD, and attending physician Amanda Emke, MD.