$37 million to extend regional biodefense and emerging infectious diseases research

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has extended funding for the Midwest Regional Center for Excellence in Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases (MRCE), anchored at the School of Medicine. The center received a five-year, $37 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to continue to support basic and translational research in biodefense and emerging infectious diseases throughout the Midwest.

Health economist and leading policy expert believes health reform legislation will pass in ’09

The United States has attempted to pass major health reform legislation eight times in the last century, starting in the mid 1910s up through 1993-94 with the failed Clinton health reform effort. “Only once in that period was any legislation passed — in 1964-65 when Medicare and Medicaid were passed,” says Timothy McBride, Ph.D., associate dean of public health at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. “Yet, for many reasons, I feel that it is much more likely that legislation will pass this year.” At this point, McBride believes that President Obama has the political support necessary to make health reform happen, and he has made it his top domestic priority. McBride has been active in testifying before Congress and consulting with important policy constituencies on Medicare, insurance and health policy issues. He is a member of the Rural Policy Research Institute Health Panel that provides expert advice on rural health issues to the U.S. Congress and other policymakers.

$19 million to WU scientists to decode microbe DNA and explore links to disease

Image courtesy of United States Department of AgricultureHuman gut bacterium *Enterococcus faecalis*The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis four grants totaling $19 million to explore the trillions of microbes that inhabit the human body and determine how they contribute to good health and disease. The grants are part of the Human Microbiome Project, an ongoing, ambitious effort to catalog the bacteria, viruses, fungi and other microorganisms that naturally coexist in or on the body.

Crowder named Brown Professor in Anesthesiology

C. Michael Crowder has been named the Dr. Seymour and Rose T. Brown Professor in Anesthesiology at the School of Medicine. The new appointment was announced by Washington University Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton and by Larry J. Shapiro executive vice chancellor for medical affairs and dean of the School of Medicine.
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