Medicine & Health

Every year, Siteman Cancer Center hosts a gathering for former bone marrow transplant patients, their families and the staff who helped care for them. It’s a celebration of survival. And every year, John F. DiPersio, MD, PhD, chief of the Division of Oncology, looks out over the audience and marvels. From the lab to the clinic, DiPersio’s work is guided by his commitment to his patients. ​​

Insights from a genetic condition that causes brain cancer are helping scientists better understand the most common type of brain tumor in children.

More students with an autism spectrum disorder gravitate toward science, technology, engineering and math majors in college than other students. But they have low college admission rates because of gender, finances and other barriers, finds a new study, co-authored by Paul Shattuck, PhD, assistant professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.

Robert O. Heuckeroth, MD, PhD, has been named the Alumni Endowed Professor of Pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. He is a professor of pediatrics at the School of Medicine and a pediatric gastroenterologist at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.

Detecting whether a patient will have acute kidney injury could become as simple as dipping a paper test strip printed with gold nanorods into a urine sample, a team of Washington University in St. Louis researchers has found.

People with diabetes often develop clogged arteries that cause heart disease. New research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has found that when vitamin D levels are adequate in people with diabetes, blood vessels are less likely to clog. But in patients with insufficient vitamin D, immune cells bind to blood vessels near the heart, then trap cholesterol to block those blood vessels.

Researchers have identified a genetic error responsible for some cases of a rare childhood leukemia with a poor prognosis.

The School of Medicine has received a $50 million grant to help speed the translation of scientific discoveries into improvements in human health. The grant supports the School of Medicine’s Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences, led by Bradley A. Evanoff, MD.

The region’s first maternal-fetal transport service that includes both obstetrics and pediatrics expertise is being launched this month by the School of Medicine and St. Louis Children’s and Barnes-Jewish hospitals.

Studying premature babies prior to their release from the NICU, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified developmental differences between those preemies and babies born at full term. Their work points to opportunities for therapeutic interventions — even in the first few weeks of life — that might improve long-term outcomes for the preemies.