Medicine & Health

Scientists have uncovered a critical genetic mutation in some patients with myelodysplastic syndromes — a group of blood cancers that can progress to a fatal form of leukemia. The research team at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis also found evidence that patients with the mutation are more likely to develop acute leukemia.

The School of Medicine will present its annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Lecture at 4 p.m. Monday, Jan. 16, in the Eric P. Newman Education Center.

Jennifer K. Lodge, PhD, and Ernst Zinner, PhD, have been named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society. Lodge and Zinner are among 539 new fellows who will be acknowledged in the Dec. 23 issue of Science magazine.The 2011 AAAS Fellows also will be honored at a Feb. 18, 2012, ceremony at the organization’s annual meeting in Vancouver, Canada.

James Fleshman, MD, is a highly regarded surgeon known for developing laparoscopic techniques for colorectal surgery. In a landmark clinical trial, his research helped to establish that laparoscopic surgery is as safe and effective as conventional surgery for removing colon tumors.

First-year medical students at Washington University School of Medicine have much to learn about the structure of the body and its cells. Soon, they will have new inspiration for that learning journey in the form of a series of detailed black-and-white electron micrographs of cells and their interiors created by John Heuser, MD, professor of cell biology and physiology.

Washington University’s Genome Institute has received a $114 million grant to continue its groundbreaking genomic research. The four-year grant comes from the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The university’s Genome Institute is one of only three large federally funded genome centers in the United States.

Medical students gave Distinguished Service Teaching Awards to more than 40 faculty and 10 resident physicians Dec. 2 in appreciation of exemplary service in medical student education.

Graham Colditz, MD, DrPH, a disease prevention expert at the Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University in St. Louis has received the Medal of Honor for cancer control research from the American Cancer Society.

Employees at Washington University Medical Center are invited to view a gallery of presentation boards, models and other materials created by three design teams for the campus renewal process. The gallery is now open on the second floor of the BJC Institute of Health at Washington University School of Medicine. Employees may visit the gallery from 7-9 a.m. Tuesdays, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Wednesdays or 2-4 p.m. Thursdays through Dec. 22.

For the first time, Anesthesiology, the premier journal in the field of anesthesiology, focuses entirely on the physicians, scientists and research conducted in a single, U.S. institution. The December issue of the journal features the work of the Department of Anesthesiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.