Medicine & Health

First-year medical students in the Class of 2014 — 122 in all — received their white coats at an Aug. 13 ceremony at the School of Medicine.

The immune system may open the door to recurrent urinary tract infections (UTIs) by overdoing its response to an initial infection, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found.

More than 340 physicians at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have been named to The Best Doctors In America for 2010.

In a recent clinical study of people with asthma, scientists found that those who consumed the least amount of soy had the most flare-ups of their asthma symptoms. Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and other institutions around the country are conducting a trial to test the effect of soy compounds on asthma symptoms.

Washington University’s American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grant program is accepting applications through Oct. 22.

Some of the School of Medicine’s most accomplished female faculty and a nationally known women’s cancer crusader will speak at the 4th annual Spotlight on Women in Science and Medicine (SWIMS) symposium Sept. 22.

Surgeons and rehabilitation specialists concentrate on the anatomical and mechanical aspects, but Linda Sandell, PhD, looks at the biology behind arthritis, broken bones and cartilage tears.The Mildred B. Simon Professor and director of research in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery says there are a number of opportunities to apply biology to orthopaedic problems.  

Two scientists at Washington University in St. Louis are able to image subcutaneous melanoma tumors with startling clarity. Their imaging technique relies on sound rather than light because sound is less strongly scattered by tissues. In addition, the tumors are preloaded with a nanoparticle contrast agent that latches onto proteins that stud the surface of the cancerous cells.

Adults diagnosed with ulcerative colitis after age 50 are more likely to achieve remission from their symptoms than patients diagnosed at younger ages, even when those patients receive similar treatments, according to research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The study is the first to look at patients whose colitis was treated with modern medications. Nearly 1 million U.S. adults have ulcerative colitis. 

Kenneth S. Polonsky, MD, the Adolphus Busch Professor and head of the Department of Medicine, has been named dean of the Division of the Biological Sciences and the Pritzker School of Medicine and executive vice president for medical affairs at the University of Chicago.