Medicine & Health

Although tobacco companies are barred by law from advertising their products to children, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine have found that many teens and pre-teens are getting tobacco advertisements and promotions through social media outlets or text messaging on mobile phones. More than one in 10 children under 18 reported receiving tobacco coupons or promotions on their Facebook or MySpace pages or in text messages.

Chris Carpenter, MD, associate professor of emergency medicine, co-chaired the national Geriatric Emergency Department Guidelines Task Force, which created new recommendations intended to improve the care for older adults in emergency departments.

IDEA Labs will host its second annual Demo Day April 18. Medical and engineering students from the Medical and Danforth campuses will demonstrate prototypes for inventions they created to solve a variety of health-care problems.

The Journal of Biological Chemistry has recognized School of Medicine researcher Ron Bose, MD, PhD, and his colleagues for work describing the combined structure of two proteins that, when bound together, drive growth of many breast cancers.

Fourth-year medical students learned Friday, March 21, where they will go for residency training, the next stage of their careers. The annual event also brought a marriage proposal for one student, to the delight of students gathered for Match Day. Shown is student Jacqueline Chen upon learning she will go to Barnes-Jewish Hospital to focus on internal medicine for her residency.

Researchers at the School of Medicine have learned that the problems people with autism have with memory formation, higher-level thinking and social interactions may be partially attributable to the activity of a receptor inside brain cells, highlighted with green in this image.

The use of social media to disseminate information is increasing in local health departments, but a new study, led by Jenine K. Harris, PhD, assistant professor at the Brown School finds that Twitter accounts are followed more by organizations than individuals and may not be reaching the intended audience.

The 10th Annual Washington University Postdoc Scientific Symposium will be held Thursday, April 3, to recognize and showcase the important contributions of postdocs to scientific enterprise at the university. Registration is open through March 27.

Children with a rare genetic disorder that causes missing and malformed teeth, sparse hair and the inability to perspire are born without a protein thought to be key to such development. A clinical trial now underway at the School of Medicine aims to see if the void can be filled with a replacement protein. Shown are Sarah and Robert Yaroch and their son Andrew, who is participating in the trial.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon signed legislation Wednesday, March 19, on the Medical Campus to increase the affordability and accessibility of oral chemotherapy medications. ​