Medicine & Health

Steve Sobo, director of design and construction, at the School of Medicine, oversees construction of new buildings and remodeling of existing facilities. His relaxed, direct communication style helps his projects go smoothly. “There’s a frank friendliness about Steve,” says Jim Walsh, a principal at Cannon Design. “He has an ability to bring together individuals to get a job done, and he also charts a clear, concise path.”

Three Washington University in St. Louis faculty members are being honored this month by the Academy of Science of St. Louis: Marcus E. Raichle, MD; Timothy Eberlein, MD; and Linda S. Cottler, PhD. The mission of the academy is to “foster the advancement of science and encouragement of public interest in and understanding of the sciences.” The awards will be given Wednesday, April 13, at a dinner at the Chase Park Plaza Hotel.

For obese seniors, dieting and exercise together are more effective at improving physical performance and reducing frailty than either alone. Although weight loss alone and exercise alone improve physical function, neither is as effective as diet and exercise together, which improved physical performance in seniors by 21 percent.  

Hearing loss is common for soldiers coming home from deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, but another perhaps equally vexing problem is tinnitus, a condition that causes them to hear sound that isn’t there. Using MRI scans, researchers hope to identify differences in brain activity that will aid development of preventive strategies to alleviate the effects of tinnitus.

Shirley Sahrmann, PhD, professor of physical therapy, of neurology and of cell biology and physiology in the School of Medicine, is at the forefront of teaching physical therapy. Her latest textbook teaches physical therapists to use the movement system to classify and categorize musculoskeletal pain problems, make accurate diagnosis and better treat the patient.

By sequencing the genome of a mouse with cancer, researchers at the School of Medicine have uncovered mutations that also drive cancer in humans.

An innate protective response that makes the brain resistant to injury from stroke can be made to last for months longer than previously documented, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis report.

Scientists have identified genetic errors in women with autoimmune diseases that increase the risk of preeclampsia, a potentially life-threatening condition that occurs in 10 percent of all pregnancies.

School of Medicine scientists have shown they can grow personalized collections of human intestinal microbes in the laboratory and pluck out particular microbes of interest. The research sets the stage for identifying new probiotics and evaluating whether microbe transplants can restore the natural balance of intestinal bacteria in “sick” microbial communities. 

Washington University’s graduating medical students will do their residency training at hospitals from coast to coast and even in Canada.