Medicine & Health

School of Medicine researchers have described a missing link in understanding how damage to the body’s cellular power plants leads to Parkinson’s disease and some forms of heart failure. A mouse heart, in gray, shows signs of heart failure because it is missing a newly discovered key molecule in the process that culls unhealthy mitochondria from cells. Superimposed on the heart is a fruit fly heart tube, shown in color. It shows signs of failure because it is missing another key molecule in mitochondrial quality control.

Andrew Scharlach, PhD, the Eugene and Rose Kleiner Professor of Aging at the University of California, Berkeley, will deliver the 2013 Friedman lecture May 3 at the Eric P. Newman Education Center on the Washington University School of Medicine campus. The title of his lecture is “Creating Aging-Friendly Communities.”

Charles Ward Parker, MD, a Washington University faculty member whose pioneering research helped improve treatment of allergies and asthma, died Tuesday, April 23, 2013, from pancreatic cancer at his home in Webster Groves. He was 83.

An investigational treatment for an inherited form of Lou Gehrig’s disease has passed an early phase clinical trial for safety, researchers at the School of Medicine and Massachusetts General Hospital report. A mutated protein that causes an inherited form of Lou Gehrig’s disease leads to clumps in the human cells, which are pictured.

Central Table, a new, 10,000-square-foot restaurant at the Barnes-Jewish Center for Outpatient Health, is scheduled to open for dinner starting May 1 and for all three meals May 6.

New research at the School of Medicine points to a common species of bacteria as an important contributor to bacterial vaginosis, a condition linked to preterm birth and increased risk of sexually transmitted diseases. Pictured is a single cell of the bacteria that may be causing the problem, Gardnerella vaginalis.

Eleven Washington University research teams will share $2.7 million in new grants from the Children’s Discovery Institute, a research collaboration between St. Louis Children’s Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine.

Gautam Dantas, PhD, has won a prestigious National Institutes of Health Award for innovative research that may improve scientists’ ability to keep the digestive system healthy.

A recent case-study competition organized by the Health Professional Student Leadership Council allowed students from various programs to learn how to collaborate across disciplines to improve patient care. Pictured is Lana Joseph, a doctoral student in audiology, explaining her thoughts on a case to physical therapy student Kelsi Smith while nursing student Stacie Chaffin listens.

Timothy Eberlein, MD, chairman of the Department of Surgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been elected president of the Southern Surgical Association.