Medicine & Health

Four Washington University in St. Louis researchers are being honored as outstanding scientists by the Academy of Science of St. Louis.

Beginning at 4 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 23, each of about 30 contenders for Bear Cub grants will present a two-minute elevator pitch outlining innovative ideas in neurology, cardiology, engineering, plant science, software development or other disciplines.

A new study provides details that will help scientists design better vaccines and drug treatments for Plasmodium vivax (P. vivax) a dangerous form of malaria common in India, Southeast Asia and South America.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are studying whether fasting from food a few days a week provides some of the same health benefits as severely limiting calories every day of the week.

The St. Louis region has experienced a sharp uptick in flu cases in recent weeks, according to Washington University physicians at Barnes-Jewish Hospital who say they are dealing with a severe flu outbreak that includes deaths from the illness. The deaths primarily were of otherwise healthy young and middle-aged adults not vaccinated against influenza, according to the physicians.

An international team of researchers has sequenced the genome of the elephant shark, a curious-looking fish with a snout that resembles the end of an elephant’s trunk. Pictured is lead researcher Byrappa Venkatesh, PhD, of A*STAR in Singapore, holding an elephant shark.

The School of Medicine and St. Louis Children’s Hospital are part of a new multi-institutional project that aims to create a national pediatric “learning health system” that will feature an extensive clinical data research network. Feliciano “Pele” Yu Jr., MD, is the project’s principal investigator on the Washington University Medical Campus.

Some brain regions in adults retain a childlike ability to establish new connections, potentially contributing to our ability to learn new skills and form new memories as we age, according to new research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the Allen Institute for Brain Sciences in Seattle.

Your nose is not the only organ in your body that can sense cigarette smoke wafting through the air. Scientists at Washington University in St. Louis have shown that your lungs have odor receptors as well. The odor receptors in your lungs are in the membranes of flask-shaped neuroendocrine cells that dump neurotransmitters and neuropeptides when the receptors are stimulated, perhaps triggering you to cough to rid your body of the offending substance.

Although most smokers realize the habit isn’t good for their hearts and lungs, Washington University orthopaedic surgeon Jeffrey Johnson and other surgeons remind patients that if they need surgery, smoking increases infection rates, makes problems with wound healing more likely and also interferes with bone healing.