Medicine & Health

Premature babies often spend their first months of life in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) — environments that, in recent years, have seen transformations, with hospitals adding private rooms to NICUs in place of open wards. But research at the School of Medicine adds new information to the discussion over what is the optimal setting for infants in the NICU. Shown is the study’s first author, Bobbi Pineda, PhD, in the NICU at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.

A gene that controls how quickly smokers process nicotine also predicts whether people who try to kick the habit are likely to respond to nicotine replacement therapy, according to new research from an investigator at the School of Medicine.

By analyzing the DNA in more than 3,000 tumors, scientists led by Li Ding, PhD, at The Genome Institute have identified 127 repeatedly mutated genes that likely drive the growth of a range of cancers in the body. The discovery sets the stage for devising new diagnostic tools and more personalized cancer treatments.

Valerie S. Ratts, MD, has been named the new associate dean for admissions at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, effective Jan. 1.

New research at the School of Medicine shows that chronic itching, which can occur in many medical conditions, is different from the urge to scratch a mosquito bite. Chronic itching appears to incorporate more than just the nerve cells that normally transmit itch signals. In the image shown, researchers identified elevated signaling (in red) in nerve cells involved in both itch and in pain.

Twin brothers Obi and Malachi Griffith and their colleagues at The Genome Institute have created a massive online database that matches thousands of genes linked to cancer and other diseases with drugs that target those genes.

Scientists from the School of Medicine and in the Netherlands have found that a class of specialized cells in the stomach reverts to stem cells more often than researchers had thought. One or more chief cells, which normally make digestive juices in the stomach, have changed into a stem cell in the image shown.

The obesity epidemic and how science may be able to impact it is the focus of the upcoming annual conference of the Institute for Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis. Graham Colditz, MD, DrPH, deputy director of the Institute for Public Health and a disease prevention expert at Siteman Cancer Center, will deliver the keynote address.

Todd P. Margolis, MD, PhD, has been named head of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the School of Medicine. The new appointment becomes effective Jan. 1.

Mitochondria are the power plants of cells, manufacturing fuel so a cell can perform its many tasks, and also are well known for their role in cell death. School of Medicine researchers and colleagues have shown that mitochondria also orchestrate events that determine a cell’s future, at least in the embryonic mouse heart. The study identifies new potential genetic culprits in the origins of some congenital heart defects. Shown is an image of a normal heart.