Medicine & Health

Neuroscientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are studying children who may be at risk for Tourette Syndrome due to the onset of motor and/or vocal tics. Many kids develop tics that later disappear, but the researchers want to learn why for some, those tics represent the beginnings of Tourette Syndrome.

Consistent exercise is associated with a lower risk of dying from colon cancer, according to a new study led by Siteman Cancer Center researchers. The study is among the first to show that physical activity can make the disease less deadly. 

Addiction researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that a risk for alcoholism also may put individuals at risk for obesity, and the association between a family history of alcoholism and obesity risk has become more pronounced in recent years.  

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have learned why changes in a single gene, ROP18, contribute substantially to dangerous forms of the parasite Toxoplasma gondii. The answer has likely moved science a step closer to new ways to beat Toxoplasma and many other parasites.

Washington University’s Human Research Protection Office (HRPO) has received an award from the Health Improvement Institute recognizing its Community Engaged Research Program, one of three the institute gave for 2010.

With support from a new $3.3 million American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are hunting for normal cells that help brain tumors form and grow

Five decades after the discovery of a rare but potentially pivotal immune cell, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found a way to eliminate it in mice. The finding, which appears in the journal Immunity, will enable more detailed investigations of the important roles the plasmacytoid dendritic cell (pDC) plays in fighting viruses and causing autoimmune diseases like psoriasis and lupus.

A new study by Gerald Andriole, MD, chief of urologic surgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, suggests the PSA test is more reliable in men taking dutasteride (Avodart®), a drug widely prescribed to shrink an enlarged prostate gland. Even a slight rise in PSA levels among men taking the drug was a stronger indicator of cancer than rising PSA levels in men taking a dummy pill.

A single dose of inactivated 2009 H1N1 influenza vaccine in people with asthma is safe, according to results from a national clinical trial with a site at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

The ruling by Judge Henry E. Hudson of the Federal District Court in Richmond, Va., finding the individual mandate provision of the new health-care law unconstitutional is an important ruling, but it does not settle the question, says Timothy D. McBride, PhD, health economist and associate dean for public health at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. McBride says that the individual mandate, while just a small piece of the health reform structure, is very important to making all of the parts of health reform work. “It is more or less like pulling on the thread of a garment, and having the whole garment come apart if this disappears,” he says.