Medicine & Health

A nationwide study has confirmed the benefit of giving estrogen-lowering drugs before surgery to breast cancer patients. The treatment increased the likelihood that women could undergo breast-conservation surgery, also called lumpectomy, instead of mastectomy.

The Washington University Medical Center Redevelopment Corp. recently received a What’s Right with the Region award from Focus St. Louis in the category of promoting strong communities.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a parasite protein that has all the makings of a microbial glass jaw: it’s essential, it’s vulnerable and humans have nothing like it, meaning scientists can take pharmacological swings at it with minimal fear of collateral damage.

Four faculty have been recruited to Washington University School of Medicine through its Faculty Diversity Scholars Program.

In a first-of-a-kind collaboration between academia and industry, Pfizer Inc. will give scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis unprecedented access to information regarding more than 500 pharmaceuticals and pharmaceutical candidates in a partnership that focuses on discovering new uses for existing compounds.

Being overweight can touch so many aspects of a child’s life. His or her schoolwork can suffer and social lives can be limited. Overweight or obese children have more difficulty sleeping, playing and even breathing.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are studying people age 60 and older to determine whether augmenting medication for depression with a second drug might help older patients break free of clinical depression. Both study drugs are FDA-approved therapies for depression in younger adults, but the benefits need to be examined in older adults. 

Timothy J. Eberlein, MD, head of the Department of Surgery and director of the Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine, has been elected to the top leadership post in the American Surgical Association. He is president-elect for the 2010-11 year and will serve as president in 2011-12. 

Scientists regularly discard up to 90 percent of the signals from monitoring of brain waves, one of the oldest techniques for observing changes in brain activity. Now, though, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found evidence that this data may contain significant information about how the brain works.

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis are seeking older volunteers to learn how physical and mental exercise influences brain function and performance of daily activities. For the exercise-training component of the study, researchers will compare aerobic exercise on treadmills or exercise bikes to flexibility training. In the cognitive portion of the study, a specialized brain-training regimen will be compared with a more general health-education program.