Medicine & Health

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, including Michael Holtzman, MD, have received an $8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study the role of the barrier functions of the skin, gut, and airway in asthma and allergic diseases. Understanding the role of the epithelial cells in these tissues may help prevent and treat respiratory illnesses in the future, the researchers say.

A drug commonly used to treat seizures appears to make eye tumors less likely to grow if they spread to other parts of the body, according to new research at the School of Medicine. Their findings are available online in the journal Clinical Cancer Research.

New research by Richard Grucza, PhD, at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis shows that a legal drinking age of less than 21 is linked to a higher risk of homicides and suicides among adult women.

Studying family members suspected of having Alzheimer’s disease, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a gene that causes a rare disorder highlighted by memory loss and motor impairments. The condition is known as Kufs disease, but scientists say the discovery paves the way to development of a genetic test for Kufs and to therapies to treat dementia, which is a hallmark of Kufs and of other neurodegenerative conditions, such as Alzheimer’s disease. 

Pediatricians often treat young children who have frequent bouts of wheezing with a daily dose of an inhaled steroid to keep asthma symptoms at bay. But results of a recent study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine, including Leonard B. Bacharier, MD, are likely to change that.

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.