Medicine & Health

A protein required to regrow injured peripheral nerves has been identified by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The finding, in mice, has implications for improving recovery after nerve injury in the extremities. It also opens new avenues of investigation toward triggering nerve regeneration in the central nervous system, notorious for its inability to heal.

Researchers studying the genetic roots of the most common malignant childhood brain tumor have discovered missteps in three of the four subtypes of the cancer involving genes that are already being targeted for drug development.

Randall Bateman, MD, has been named the Charles F. and Joanne Knight Distinguished Professor in Neurology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

David H. Gutmann, MD, PhD, a neurofibromatosis expert at the Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has received the 2012 Friedrich von Recklinghausen Award.

Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found new clues to why some urinary tract infections recur persistently after multiple rounds of treatment. Their research, conducted in mice, suggests that the bacteria that cause urinary tract infections take advantage of a cellular waste disposal system that normally helps fight invaders.

Bradley P. Stoner, MD, PhD, has been elected president of the American Sexually Transmitted Diseases Association, the national society that represents researchers and clinicians specializing in sexually transmitted infections.

State laws that limit driving privileges for teens have reduced the incidence of drinking and driving among the nation’s youngest licensees, according to a new study from researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Teens comprise less than 5 percent of licensed drivers in the country, but they account for roughly 20 percent of motor vehicle crashes.

Workers prepare to place a new MRI scanner into the East Building at the School of Medicine June 11. The 18,000-pound scanner will be used for the Human Connectome Project, a research study that will trace the anatomical and functional connections between different regions of the brain’s gray matter.

Racial discrimination could lessen the mental-health benefits usually associated with better socio-economic position for African-American men, finds a new study by Darrell L. Hudson, PhD, assistant professor of public health at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.

Some 200 U.S. scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and elsewhere detail findings from the most comprehensive census of the microbial make-up of healthy humans.