Medicine & Health

Researchers led by Samuel Achilefu, PhD, at the School of Medicine have devised a way to apply light-based therapy to deep tissues never before accessible. Instead of shining an outside light, they delivered light directly to tumor cells, along with a photosensitive source of free radicals that can be activated by the light to destroy cancer.

Stroke can lead to a wide range of problems such as depression and difficulty moving, speaking and paying attention. A new study led by Maurizio Corbetta, MD, at the School of Medicine has found evidence that stroke damage to “cables” buried inside the brain plays an important role in these impairments.

The stigma surrounding people with severe mental illness in India leads to increased poverty among them, especially women, according to new research led by Jean-Francois Trani, PhD, assistant professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.

Evaluating military personnel with blast-related mild traumatic brain injuries, researchers have found that early symptoms of post-traumatic stress, such as anxiety, emotional numbness, flashbacks and irritability, are the strongest predictors of later disability. The study was led by the School of Medicine.

​​Jianmin Cui, PhD, of the School of Engineering & Applied Science at Washington University in St. Louis, has received a nearly $1.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study the molecular bases for the function of potassium channels vital for the heart, brain, inner ear and other tissues.

New research suggests that widely used statin therapy provides the most benefit to patients with the highest genetic risk of heart attack. Using a relatively straightforward genetic analysis, the researchers, including Nathan O. Stitziel, MD, PhD, assessed heart attack risk independently of the traditional risk factors.

Jeffrey I. Gordon, MD, director of the Center for Genome Sciences and Systems Biology, has been awarded the King Faisal International Prize in Medicine.

Melissa Hopkins, assistant vice chancellor and assistant dean of facilities operations at the School of Medicine, excels at multi-tasking. At work, she oversees facilities engineering, design and construction, support services, business operations and protective services. At home, she and her husband have three children with plans to adopt three more. Further, she also shares custody of three children and has three adult sons from a previous marriage.

Highlighting a potential target in the treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS) and Alzheimer’s disease, new research suggests that triggering a protein found on the surface of brain cells may help slow the progression of these and other neurological diseases.

Guided by the immune system, researchers have identified types of gut bacteria in both healthy and undernourished children in Malawi that are linked to nutritional health and that have diagnostic and therapeutic implications for childhood undernutrition.