Medicine & Health

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, including Stuart A. Kornfeld, MD, have obtained new evidence that at least some persistent stuttering is caused by mutations in a gene governing not speech, but a metabolic pathway involved in recycling old cell parts. Beyond a simple association, the study provides the first evidence that mutations affecting cellular recycling centers called lysosomes actually play a role in causing some people to stutter. 

Genomics and Pathology Services at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis (GPS@WUSTL), directed by Karen Seibert, PhD, is now offering a test for mutations in 28 genes associated with cancer. The genes in the test affect a variety of different types of tumors, including blood, lymph, lung, brain, bladder, kidney, skin, stomach, prostate and breast cancers.

The School of Medicine’s 8th Annual Art Show is now accepting submissions through Jan. 13, 2012.

Breast cancer expert Matthew Ellis, MD, PhD, works with the Genome Institute at Washington University to sequence entire breast cancer genomes — the billions of “letters” making up a person’s DNA. The goal is to unlock the mysteries of breast cancer and tailor treatments to individual patients.

An experimental treatment for urinary tract infections has easily passed its first test in animals, alleviating weeks-long infections in mice in as little as six hours.

Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown that taking a probiotic before radiation therapy can protect the intestine from damage — at least in mice. Their study suggests that taking a probiotic also may help cancer patients avoid intestinal injury, a common problem in those receiving radiation therapy for abdominal cancers.

John A. Cooper, MD, PhD, has been named interim head of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Undergraduate students were in St. Louis Nov. 9-12 for the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students, designed to encourage undergraduate, post baccalaureate and graduate underrepresented minority students to pursue advanced training in the biomedical and behavioral sciences. Washington University, under the leadership of the Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences, hosted a visit the Danforth and Medical campuses for about 200 students.

A new study shows that adolescent girls with a family history of breast disease – either cancer or the benign lesions that can become cancer – have a higher risk of developing benign breast disease as young women than other girls. And unlike girls without a family history, this already elevated risk rises with increasing alcohol consumption.

An operation for preventing repeat strokes in high-risk patients has failed in a multi-institutional clinical trial, led by Colin P. Derdeyn, MD, professor of radiology at Washington University School of Medicine. Results are reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association.