Medicine & Health

A memorial service in honor of Michael J. Welch, PhD, who was a faculty member for more than four decades at Washington University in St. Louis, will be held at 3 p.m. June 4 in Graham Chapel.

Innate differences in immunity can be detected at birth, according to new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. First author Kaharu Sumino, MD, and her colleagues say babies with a better innate response to viruses have fewer respiratory illnesses in the first year of life.

Washington University School of Medicine students Nathan Moore and Elisabeth Askin collaborated to produce a clear and concise guide to the U.S. health-care system called the Health Care Handbook. The book is a topical overview of the system, aimed primarily at undergraduate and graduate health professions students.

School of Medicine researchers have found evidence that early drug and alcohol use is associated with lower levels of educational achievement. They found that people who began drinking or using drugs as young teens or who became substance dependent were less likely to finish college.

Surgeons at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, led by Susan E. Mackinnon, MD, have restored some hand function in a quadriplegic patient with a spinal cord injury at the C7 vertebra, the lowest bone in the neck. Instead of operating on the spine itself, the surgeons rerouted working nerves in the upper arms. These nerves still “talk” to the brain because they attach to the spine above the injury.

Azad Bonni, MD, PhD, currently professor of neurobiology at Harvard Medical School, will be the next head of the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Jeffrey I. Gordon, MD, at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis will lead an international team of scientists to find new ways to diagnose, treat and prevent a critical global health problem: malnutrition in infants and children. The work is funded by an $8.3 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have developed a genetic test that can accurately predict whether the most common form of eye cancer will spread to other parts of the body, particularly the liver. The test successfully classified tumors more than 97 percent of the time.

Led by Jasvindar Singh, MD, doctors at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are seeking volunteers for a clinical trial testing an investigational device in patients with severe high blood pressure that can’t be controlled with aggressive medical treatments.

William A. Peck, MD, the Alan A. and Edith L. Wolff Distinguished Professor of Medicine and director of the Center for Health Policy at Washington University in St. Louis, will be the keynote speaker at Washington University School of Medicine’s 2012 Commencement at 3 p.m. May 18 in the Ferrara Theater at the America’s Center, 701 Convention Plaza, St. Louis, Mo.