Medicine & Health

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.

Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital plan to build a new Siteman Cancer Center in south St. Louis County, serving the Interstate 55 corridor and southern Illinois.

Missouri is getting national attention with the Aug. 3 Proposition C referendum on  federal health care reform. But Timothy D. McBride, PhD, associate dean for public health at the Brown School, says no matter the outcome, the vote will have little impact on the new health care law.

The protein SIRT1 in the brain is tied into a mechanism that allows animals to survive when food is scarce, according to a new study at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The research suggests that SIRT1 may be involved with the life span-increasing effect of low-calorie diets, they report.

Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found a way to significantly reduce atherosclerosis in mice that does not involve lowering cholesterol levels or eliminating other obesity-related problems. Atherosclerosis is the process through which fatty substances, such as cholesterol and cellular waste products accumulate in the lining of arteries. The research team inhibited atherosclerosis in the mice by interfering with production of a substance called fatty acid synthase, an enzyme that converts dietary sugars into fatty acids in the liver.  

Occupational therapy students learn the powerful effect of alcohol on an egg to demonstrate fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.

Improving the lives of infants and children with developmental disabilities will be the focus of Washington University’s new Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (WUIDDRC).

Ralph J. Damiano Jr., MD, chief of cardiac surgery and the John M. Shoenberg Professor of Surgery at Washington University School of Medicine, was elected president of the International Society of Minimally Invasive Cardiothoracic Surgery for 2010-11.

A parasite estimated to afflict as many as 12 million people worldwide relies on a family of genes that should make it vulnerable to compounds developed to treat cancer and other disorders, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found.

A new bachelor of science in health care will be offered this fall semester at University College, the adult, evening and continuing education division in Arts & Sciences. The degree program, which begins with the start of the semester Aug. 31, provides an academic foundation for students pursuing managerial, clinical or research careers in health care.