Medicine & Health

Mice missing two important proteins of the vascular system develop normally and appear healthy in adulthood, as long as they are not injured in some way. If they are, their wounds don’t heal properly, a new study shows. The research has possible implications for treating diseases involving abnormal blood vessel growth, including in the skin and eye.

An estimated 55 million to 105 million people in the United States suffer from foodborne illnesses each year, resulting in costs of $2-$4 billion annually. What if Twitter could be used to track those cases and more quickly identify the source of the problem? A new analysis by a researcher at Washington University in St. Louis Brown School shows that new technology might better allow health departments to engage with the public to improve foodborne illness surveillance.

Musically talented members of the Washington University Medical Center community will be featured in a summer concert at 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 23, in the lobby of the Center for Advanced Medicine.

The inaugural Health and Engineeering Careers Summer Camp took place in late July at West Side Missionary Baptist Church in St. Louis. Numerous Washington University in St. Louis groups co-sponsored the event, which aimed to encourage underrepresented children to focus on science and math subjects. Here, 10-year-old Deja Stallworth proudly shows off the robot she made.

Marcus E. Raichle, MD, was among a group of 2014 Kavli Prize winners honored with a White House reception in late July. Raichle, the Alan A. and Edith L. Wolff Distinguished Professor, was one of three scientists awarded the Kavli Prize in Neuroscience on May 29.

The Ebola virus, in the midst of its biggest outbreak on record, is a master at evading the body’s immune system. But researchers at the School of Medicine and elsewhere have learned one way the virus dodges the body’s antiviral defenses, providing important insight that could lead to new therapies.

New research in mice suggests that a class of drugs approved to treat leukemia and epilepsy also may be effective against kidney stones. Pictured is the surface of a kidney stone with calcium oxalate crystals.

An investigational drug studied in animals significantly reduced damage to heart muscle from a heart attack and minimized the risk of bleeding during follow-up treatments, according to a study by scientists at the School of Medicine. Pictured is senior author Dana Abendschein, PhD.

The population of bacteria in premature infants’ guts may depend more on the babies’ biological makeup and gestational age at birth than on environmental factors, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found. They discovered that bacterial communities assemble in a choreographed progression, with the pace of that assembly slowest in infants born most prematurely.

A new study suggests uric acid may play a role in causing metabolic syndrome, a cluster of risk factors that increases the risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes. The work also demonstrates the importance of the intestine in removing uric acid from the body, opening the door to potential therapies for preventing or treating type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome.