Medicine & Health

Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Boise State University have been named partners in one of five U.S. centers that will use genetic data to search for proteins that are abnormally made by cancer cells. The partnerships form the new Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium (CPTAC) supported by the National Cancer Institute.

Poor diet, lack of exercise and smoking are often cited as causes of preventable illness and death in the United States. A new master’s program in Applied Health Behavior Research launching this fall is designed to address the science of health behavior, says Mario Schootman, PhD, the program’s director.

Applications for the K12 Clinical Hematology Research Career Development Program scholars are being accepted through Oct. 17.

A memorial service for Gustav Schonfeld, MD, the Samuel E. Schechter Professor and former head of the Department of Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, will be held at 4:30 p.m. Sept. 23 in the Moore Auditorium in the North Building.

Anesthesiology researchers have shown that a device to reduce the risk that patients will recall their surgery does not lower the risk of intraoperative awareness any more than a less expensive method. Unintended intraoperative awareness occurs when a patient becomes aware during surgery and later remembers being in pain or feeling distress during the operation. 

Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has launched a new center devoted to turning innovations developed in the laboratory into improved treatments at the patient’s bedside. Led by David T. Curiel, MD, PhD, the Biologic Therapeutics Center will foster translational medicine and support a quicker transition of knowledge from the lab to the clinic.

Siblings of children with autism are known to be at increased risk for autistic spectrum disorder, but now researchers at the Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine led by John N. Constantino, MD, report the risk is substantially higher than previously believed. Their results show that 19 percent of infant siblings develop the disorder by age 3. 

The School of Medicine Class of 2015 recites the Student Oath they wrote during orientation at the White Coat Ceremony Aug. 12 at the Eric P. Newman Education Center. The 121 students in the class were given white coats, a longtime symbol of the medical profession.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis also found that Parkinson’s patients seeing a neurologist were less likely to be placed in a nursing home or to break a hip.

Doctors at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that less than 1 percent of children who had surgery at St. Louis Children’s Hospital developed an infection at the surgical site within 30 days, they report in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.