Medicine & Health

A workhorse of modern biology is sick, and scientists couldn’t be happier. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and other institutions have found that the nematode C. elegans, a millimeter-long worm used extensively for decades to study many aspects of biology, gets naturally occurring viral infections.

Health 2.0 and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) recently named Ozioma, an online cancer information tool from the Health Communication Research Laboratory (HCRL) at Washington University in St. Louis, one of two winners of a national contest. The Ozioma News Service was chosen a winner of the Enabling Community Use of Data for Cancer Prevention and Control Challenge, a part of the 2010 Health 2.0 Developer Challenge. The Ozioma tool helps reporters and media relations professionals create localized cancer stories for specific populations in specific communities.

Mackenzie Asel (left) and Arun Ganti, both second-year medical students, study a painting on display at the 2011 Student, Faculty and Staff Art Show in the atrium of the Farrell Learning and Teaching Center at the School of Medicine. The show, which runs through Feb. 11, features photography, painting, mixed media, ceramics and various other forms of art.

A form of play therapy between parents and their toddlers can relieve depression in preschoolers, according to child psychiatry researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. For the study, the researchers adapted a play-based technique known as parent-child interaction therapy, adding a focus on emotional development. 

F. Sessions Cole, MD, Mark D. Levine, MD and Megan E. Wren, MD, have been awarded the 2010 Samuel R. Goldstein Leadership Awards in Medical Education.

The Arthritis Foundation has awarded its Lee C. Howley Sr. Prize for Arthritis Research to Wayne M. Yokoyama, MD, the Sam J. and Audrey Loew Levin Chair for Research in Arthritis and director of the Medical Scientist Training Program at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Dorothy T. Rinderer, an administrative assistant for 40 years in the Dean’s Office at the School of Medicine, died Sunday, Jan. 2, 2011, at Mary Queen and Mother Center in Shrewsbury, Mo. She was 88.

Three faculty recently received grants from the Children’s Discovery Institute to advance their research into childhood diseases.

Scientists, including Gerald W. Dorn, MD, have identified the first DNA sequence variant common in the population that is not only associated with an increased risk of heart failure, but appears to play a role in causing it.

For someone who grew up on the East Coast and spent much of his career on the West Coast, George Van Hare, MD, certainly seems at home in the Midwest.