Medicine & Health

School of Medicine researchers have identified a chain reaction that triggers the regrowth of some damaged nerve cell branches, a discovery that one day may help improve treatments for nerve injuries that can cause loss of sensation or paralysis. To study how nerve cells respond to injuries in their branches, researcher Valeria Cavalli grows them in “spots,” like the one pictured.

Two decades of research by Rumi Kato Price, PhD, a professor of psychiatry at the Washington University School of Medicine, shows reason for optimism about the future of returning soldiers. “The notion that our soldiers deployed to conflict regions come back ‘broken’ is a one-sided story in the media,” says Price, whose research has explored trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse and suicide among American military service members and veterans.

Friends and family of Bernard Becker, MD, will gather for a memorial Friday, Nov. 22. Becker, professor emeritus of ophthalmology and visual sciences, died at his home Aug. 28, 2013, at the age of 93.

Washington University has received a $1.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to foster student diversity in its PhD training program in the biomedical sciences. Pictured are inaugural scholars from the program.

A groundbreaking multidisciplinary study on African-American health in St. Louis, ‘For the Sake of All,’ releases its fourth brief. This one examines the long-term effects of how segregation affects access to health-promoting resources and health outcomes such as chronic disease and death.

Washington University’s Bear Cub Fund supports innovative translational research to help investigators demonstrate the commercial potential of their technologies. Grant applications are due Nov. 30.

The School of Medicine and its Department of Pediatrics have established funding for three pediatric scholars named in honor of a trio of highly regarded former pediatricians at the university. The new Scholars in Pediatrics are Paul Hruz, MD, PhD, Shalini Shenoy, MD, and Andrew White, MD.

Researchers at the School of Medicine are studying the quality, effectiveness and safety of generic drugs used to treat depression. The research, supported by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, is the only study of its kind in the nation. Pictured is the study’s principal investigator, Evan D. Kharasch, MD, PhD.

Researchers at the School of Medicine have identified changes in the brains of children growing up in poverty. Those changes can lead to lifelong problems like depression, learning difficulties and limitations in the ability to cope with stress. But the study showed that the extent of those changes was influenced strongly by whether parents were attentive and nurturing. Pictured is principal investigator Joan L. Luby, MD.

Athletes with concussions aren’t allowed to compete again right away, and a Washington University concussion expert advises that children with concussions also may not be able to go back to the classroom right away. Pictured is an image of the brain.