Medicine & Health

Scientists have identified a new way that some viruses protect themselves from the immune system’s efforts to stop infections, a finding that may make new approaches to treating viral infections possible.

In a surprising discovery, neuroscientists, led by a team from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, have found that a molecule that is a breakdown product of cholesterol in the brain may be a target for developing new drugs to treat schizophrenia and other mental illnesses.

On Feb. 6, Laura Svetkey, MD, professor of medicine at Duke University, will give the inaugural speech in the Women Leaders in Public Health Career Lecture Series at Washington University. The goal of the series, sponsored by the University’s Institute for Public Health, is to offer broad perspectives from female leaders about their careers in diverse fields related to public health.

Steven Strasberg, MD, the Pruett Professor of Surgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, will receive the 2014 Distinguished Service Award from the Americas Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association.

The S. Lee Kling Proton Therapy Center at Washington University Medical Center has begun treating patients with cancer near vital organs such as the spine, brain, heart and eyes. The center is the only one within 225 miles that offers proton therapy, a highly accurate radiation treatment.

A new study conservatively estimates that one in five women with ovarian cancer has inherited genetic mutations that increase the risk of the disease, according to research by the School of Medicine’s Li Ding, PhD, and her colleagues.

Bradley L. Schlaggar, MD, PhD, the A. Ernest and Jane G. Stein Professor of Neurology, has been named director of the Division of Pediatric and Developmental Neurology.

Ten Washington University physicians recently became certified in new medical subspecialties — five in clinical informatics and five in emergency medical services. Board certification exams were offered for the first time in each subspecialty in October.

Scientists have decoded the genome of an intestinal parasite that causes hookworm, an illness that afflicts an estimated 700 million of the world’s poor. The parasitic worm lives in the soil and enters the body through the feet. By feeding on victims’ blood, the worms cause anemia and, in children, stunted growth and learning problems.

Researchers at the School of Medicine have shown that two major pools of immune cells are at work in the heart. Both belong to a class of cells known as macrophages. One appears to promote healing, while the other likely drives inflammation, which is detrimental to long-term heart function.