Medicine & Health

The nuclear pharmacist with a flair for design is working to keep Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology at the forefront of research and patient care.

Eighty-one staff members in the Facilities Management Department at Washington University School of Medicine recently earned the title of Facility Management Professional (FMP) from the International Facility Management Association. The department set a national record by having so many employees earn this title in less than four months. Professionals who become FMPs complete a series of comprehensive exams covering four areas: operations and maintenance, project management, finance and business, and leadership and strategy.

Anesthesiology researchers Robert Gereau, PhD, (left) and Michael Bruchas, PhD, (right) have received one of only 11 DECODE (Deciphering Circuit Basis of Disease) grants to be awarded. The awards were announced at a ceremony featuring Thomas Insel, MD, (center) director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).

Samuel A. Wickline, MD, has been chosen to receive the Chancellor’s Award for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Washington University in St. Louis. He will receive the honor Saturday, Dec. 6. Faculty achievement awards will be presented to David A. Balota, PhD, and Steven L. Teitelbaum, MD.

Genetic mutations may cause more cases of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) than scientists previously had realized, according to researchers. Shown are study authors Janet Cady, a PhD candidate, and Matthew Harms, MD, assistant professor of neurology at the School of Medicine.

Heidi Prather, DO, professor and chief of physical medicine and rehabilitation, has been named president of the North American Spine Society (NASS). She is the first woman elected to the position.

A breast cancer vaccine developed at the School of Medicine is safe in patients with metastatic breast cancer, results of an early clinical trial indicate. Preliminary evidence from the small clinical trial, led by William Gillanders, MD, also suggests that the vaccine primed the patients’ immune systems to attack tumor cells and helped slow the cancer’s progression.

Science textbooks say we can’t see infrared light. Like X-rays and radio waves, infrared light waves are longer than the light waves in the visual spectrum. But an international team of researchers co-led by Frans Vinberg, PhD, (left) and Vladimir J. Kefalov, PhD, has found that under certain conditions, the retina can sense infrared light after all.

You might want to stand up for this. Occupational sitting is associated with an increased likelihood of obesity, especially among black women, independent of occupational and leisure time physical activity, finds a new study from the School of Medicine and the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.

In the near future, physicians may treat some cancer patients with personalized vaccines that spur their immune systems to attack malignant tumors. New research led by scientists at the School of Medicine including senior author Robert Schreiber, PhD, has brought the approach one step closer to reality.