Medicine & Health

School of Medicine researchers have received an $8 million grant to investigate the genetic and environmental roots of cardiovascular disease risk factors. The four-year grant will support the first large-scale, multiethnic statistical analysis of risk factors for cardiovascular disease that looks at lifestyle interactions with genes. Shown are principal investigators D.C. Rao, PhD, and Ingrid Borecki, PhD.

In recognition of National Youth HIV & AIDS Awareness Day, a youth leadership program of Project ARK and The SPOT will host an open-mic event to encourage young people to talk about HIV/AIDS and sexual health. The Youth Advocacy Committee will host the event from 7-9 p.m. Thursday, April 10, at Blank Space, 2847 Cherokee St., St. Louis.

Mario Castro, MD, has been named the Alan A. and Edith L. Wolff Professor of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the School of Medicine. He is a noted authority on asthma and other respiratory diseases.

Elaine R. Mardis, PhD, and Richard K. Wilson, PhD, both renowned for discoveries in the field of genomics, have been named to endowed professorships. They were installed by Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton (far left), and Larry J. Shapiro, MD, executive vice chancellor for medical affairs and dean of the School of Medicine (far right).

The Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) will close the ramp from westbound Interstate 64/Highway 40 to Boyle Avenue in St. Louis at 9 a.m. Monday, April 7. The ramp is expected to reopen by mid-May. 

Severely restricting dietary phosphate early in the course of chronic kidney disease can prevent related heart and vascular problems, a new study in rats indicates. Phosphate, an essential mineral, is found in colas, milk, cheese and other dairy products, beans and high-protein foods, and often is added as a preservative in processed foods.

People who smoke also tend to eat more high-fat foods. So do obese people. Now, a team of researchers, including M. Yanina Pepino, PhD, at the School of Medicine, has found that obese women who also smoke have a difficult time perceiving fat and sweetness in their food. And that could lead them to eat even more fatty foods.

New research at the School of Medicine and Vanderbilt University Medical Center has implicated a poorly understood protein called PLAC8 in the spread of colon cancer.

Take a virtual tour of Washington University Medical Center’s future, when all phases of construction will be complete. The Medical Campus is being transformed by renovations and new construction as part of the Campus Renewal Project.

The School of Medicine’s 2014 commencement speaker will be Mark McClellan, MD, PhD, a senior fellow and director of the Initiative on Value and Innovation in Health Care at the Brookings Institution. Several other commencement speakers also have been announced.