Medicine & Health

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. 

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.

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. 

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. 

The School of Medicine’s Public Health Interest Group is holding a class at the Herbert Hoover Boys & Girls Club Adams Park Unit to teach children and their parents how to prepare healthy meals. School of Medicine students spend the first hour discussing nutrition with the children and their parents separately, and in the second hour, the families come together to prepare and eat a meal.

The Shriners Hospitals for Children has resumed plans to build a new hospital at Washington University Medical Center. The project was placed on hold in early 2009 due to the economic downturn and its effect on the international health system’s endowment fund.