Medicine & Health

At 37, Eric Leuthardt, MD, assistant professor of neurosurgery, is No. 5 on a list of the world’s 100 most prolific patent holders. He posts entries to his blog, Brains and Machines, on Tumblr about general brain science and his own work as a surgeon, teacher, researcher and inventor. He directs the Center for Innovation in Neuroscience and Technology, and he has just sent drafts of his first novel to prospective publishers.

Paul R. Manske, MD, professor of orthopaedic surgery, died Wednesday, April 20, 2011, at Barnes-Jewish Hospital of an extended illness. He was 72. Manske, a hand surgeon at Washington University since the late 1960s, was chairman of the Division of Orthopaedic Surgery from 1983-1995. In addition, he was formerly orthopedic surgeon in chief at Barnes Hospital and director of hand surgery at Shriner’s Hospital for Children.

As fuel prices soar, food prices are beginning to creep up to crisis levels most recently seen in 2007. “Coupled with the financial crisis, high food prices can take a significant toll on nutrition, especially in developing countries,” says Lora Iannotti, PhD. “The same consequences can be true for wealthier countries, as households opt for less expensive, poor quality foods. Hidden hunger is a problem across the globe.”

Cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins may help clot-busting drugs treat strokes, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. “We’ve known that patients on statins have better stroke outcomes, but the data in this study suggest a new reason why: Statins may help improve blood flow to brain regions at risk of dying during ischemic stroke,” says senior author Jin-Moo Lee, MD, PhD, director of the cerebrovascular disease section in the Department of Neurology. The results appear online in the journal Stroke.

Students from the Herbert Hoover Boys & Girls Club Adams Park Unit paint a colorful mural promoting the Tour de Grove professional bike race in the Grove neighborhood bordering the Washington University Medical Center. The Washington University Medical Center Redevelopment Corp. received a grant from the St. Cronin Housing Corp. to fund four murals throughout the neighborhood.

Indira Mysorekar and a team of researchers at the School of Medicine are studying asymptomatic infections in the placenta and uterine lining to see if they may play a role in preterm birth.  

Lisa Jones (right) talks with Guillermina Lozano, PhD, from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center after the Minority Research Scholars Symposium April 20 at the Farrell Learning and Teaching Center. The symposium was sponsored by the Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences Diversity Programs Office.

Two new studies in the Journal of the American Medical Association by Washington University researchers including Timothy Ley, MD, and Richard Wilson, PhD, highlight the power of sequencing cancer patients’ genomes as a diagnostic tool, helping doctors decide the best course of treatment and researchers identify new cancer susceptibility mutations that can be passed from parent to child.

Despite promising findings in the laboratory, Dominic N. Reeds, MD, and other nutrition researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that ginseng does not improve insulin sensitivity in diabetics who are overweight.

Ken Yamaguchi, MD, the Sam and Marilyn Fox Distinguished Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, fixes shoulders and elbows. Although many think of rotator cuff tears affecting athletes, almost 50 percent of people over age 70 have rotator cuff tears, either with or without pain.