Medicine & Health

Mary Corcoran has been named assistant dean for finance at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Her appointment, which marks her return to the university after six years at Stanford University, is effective Aug. 21.

More efforts should be directed at promoting interventions that have the potential to prevent multiple chronic diseases and extend healthy lifespans. School of Medicine and other researchers write in Nature that economic incentives in biomedical research and health care reward treating disease more than promoting good health.

Regis James O’Keefe, MD, PhD, is a highly regarded orthopaedic oncologist. He comes to the School of Medicine from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, where he is the chair of orthopaedics and rehabilitation.

New research provides an intriguing glimpse into the processes that establish connections between nerve cells in the brain. These connections, or synapses, allow nerve cells to transmit and process information involved in thinking and moving the body. Pictured is the study’s senior author, Azad Bonni, MD, PhD.

Scientists may be able to entomb the malaria parasite in a prison of its own making, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis report July 16 in Nature.

Cigarette smokers are more likely to commit suicide than people who don’t smoke, a relationship that has been attributed to the fact that numerous people with psychiatric disorders, who have higher suicide rates, also tend to smoke. But a new study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis finds that smoking itself may increase suicide risk and that policies to limit smoking reduce suicide rates.

David W. Piston, PhD, has been named the new head of the Department of Cell Biology and Physiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Renowned for his groundbreaking work with fluorescent imaging techniques, Piston comes to WUSTL from Vanderbilt University.

Larry J. Shapiro, MD, dean of the School of Medicine, recently surprised three staff members with service awards. Pam Gassner was awarded the Dean’s Distinguished Service Award; Peggy Frisella, the Research Support Award; and Amy Stabenow, the Operations Staff Award.  Pictured are Lynn Cornelius, MD, Gassner and Shapiro.

To help commemorate the Central Institute for the Deaf’s centennial, the Bernard Becker Medical Library has a new exhibit featuring rare books, early hearing aids, photos and other items related to the institute.

Studying the most common type of lung cancer, researchers from The Cancer Genome Atlas have uncovered new mutations in a cell-signaling pathway that plays a role in forming tumors. The new knowledge may expand treatments for patients because drugs targeting some of these genetic changes already are available or are in clinical trials.