Medicine & Health

Life-threatening bacterial infections and brain tumors are just some of the serious health issues affecting children. Now, 12 Washington University School of Medicine research teams are preparing to ask – and answer – critical questions about these and other pediatric health problems with help from $3 million in new grants from the Children’s Discovery Institute, led by Mary Dinauer, MD, PhD.

Rebecca Dresser, JD, the Daniel Noyes Kirby Professor of Law and professor of ethics at the School of Medicine, was diagnosed with head and neck cancer six years ago. For perspective, she reached out to other medical ethicists, who had either had cancer themselves, or had a spouse diagnosed with the disease. The group’s meetings became the basis for the book, Malignant: Medical Ethicists Confront Cancer.

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Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, including Jimmy Lin, PhD, are reaching out to patient advocacy groups and offering to decode the DNA of 99 patients with rare diseases to help find the genetic alterations responsible for their illnesses. The patients’ DNA will be sequenced by the university’s Genomics and Pathology Services (GPS) at no cost to patients or advocacy groups.

Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis is organizing a Missouri-wide Heart Failure Clinical Research Network, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Cardiology Chief Douglas L. Mann, MD, says this clinical research consortium is one of only nine regional centers across the country investigating innovative treatments for heart failure.

Not all viruses make us sick. But which ones are friends and which ones are foes? Researchers, led by Gregory Storch, MD, at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have received a five-year, $3.3 million grant to study children with weakened immune systems to identify the viruses that make children sick.

In one way or another, nearly everyone at Washington University School of Medicine has heard of Bernard Becker, MD. Many use the beautiful Bernard Becker Medical Library or consult rare eye books there from the well-known Becker collection. In the Department of Ophthalmology, which Becker chaired for more than 35 years, faculty members know well his landmark research on glaucoma.

Registration is now open for the School of Medicine’s Mini-Medical School, now in its 14th year. These eight-week sessions offer the WUSTL community and the public an opportunity to learn about medicine and surgery from the School of Medicine faculty in a classroom environment.

Surgeons at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified tiny fractures and other rib abnormalities in patients treated for a circulatory condition called venous thoracic outlet syndrome. The disorder is often seen in elite athletes who rely on their upper extremities.

Lawrence G. Lenke, MD, has been appointed chief of spinal surgery in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. He succeeds Keith H. Bridwell, MD, head of the spine service for the past 28 years.