Medicine & Health

Piwnica-WormsHelen Piwnica-Worms has been named the first Gerty T. Cori Professor at the School of Medicine. The appointment was announced by Larry Shapiro, executive vice chancellor for medical affairs. The professorship is named in honor of a University faculty member who shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine with her husband and fellow faculty member Carl Cori in 1947.

A national review has revealed that positron emission tomography (PET) scans of cancer patients led clinicians to change treatment plans for more than a third of the patients, scientists report this week in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

The Olin Business School now offers a major in healthcare management. Professors from both the medical and business schools will teach courses to both business and non-business majors. The degree will help develop a strong grounding in all aspects of the health care industry as well as in the science behind medicine.

Women over age 65 have a harder time preserving muscle than men of the same age, which probably affects their ability to stay strong and fit, according to research conducted at the School of Medicine and the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom. For the first time, scientists have shown it is more difficult for older women to replace muscle that is lost naturally because of key differences in the way their bodies process food.

Current treatments allow most HIV-infected individuals to live healthy, productive lives, but they can also increase risk for cardiovascular problems. Now researchers at the School of Medicine have found a possible explanation. They discovered that the heart doesn’t slow down as quickly after exercise in patients taking highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) for HIV.

MichalskiJeff Michalski, professor of radiation oncology, has been named interim head of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, effective April 1. Michalski is replacing Simon Powell, who has taken a position as head of radiation oncology at Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

Among the approximately 23,000 genes found in human DNA, scientists currently estimate that there may be as few as 50 to 100 that have no counterparts in other species. Expand that comparison to include the primate family known as hominoids, and there may be several hundred unique genes.

ZebrafishBy injecting a customized “genetic patch” into early stage fish embryos, researchers at the School of Medicine were able to correct a genetic mutation so the embryos developed normally. The research could lead to the prevention of up to one-fifth of birth defects in humans caused by genetic mutations, according to the authors.

The Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis now offers a major in healthcare management. Professors from both the medical and business schools will teach courses to both business and non-business majors. The degree will help develop a strong grounding in all aspects of the healthcare industry as well as in the science behind medicine.

The School of Medicine has received a five-year, $3.9 million grant to lead an international research effort designed to improve outcomes for children undergoing lung transplants. Lung-transplant patients are subject to more frequent infections, organ rejection and other complications than patients with other transplanted organs.