Medicine & Health

Scientists at the School of Medicine have linked a mutation in a gene known as TDP-43 to an inherited form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the neurodegenerative condition often called Lou Gehrig’s disease. Researchers found the connection intriguing because studies by other groups have revealed abnormalities in the TDP-43 protein in both sporadic and inherited ALS, as well as in several other neurodegenerative disorders.

Below is a link to the Washington University news release about the U.S. News & World Report undergraduate rankings for 2004-05: http://news-info.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/3627.html To view a full listing of U.S. News magazine, book and Web-only rankings for 2004-05, please visit the U.S. News & World Report site: http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/rankindex_brief.php

Below is a link to the Washington University news release about the U.S. News & World Report undergraduate rankings for 2004-05: http://news-info.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/3627.html To view a full listing of U.S. News magazine, book and Web-only rankings for 2004-05, please visit the U.S. News & World Report site: http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/rankindex_brief.php

Subtle malformations in the brains of patients with schizophrenia also tend to occur in their healthy siblings, according to investigators at the Silvio Conte Center for the Neuroscience of Mental Disorders at the School of Medicine. Shape abnormalities were found in the brain’s thalamus. The researchers performed brain MRI scans in 25 patients with schizophrenia and their non-affected siblings and compared the scans with those of 40 healthy volunteers and their siblings.

Experts in alcoholism and suicide from around the United States will present their research Feb. 21 at the 8th Annual Samuel B. Guze Symposium on Alcoholism at the School of Medicine. This year’s event focuses on “Alcohol, Suicide and Suicidality.” The program is intended for physicians, psychologists, social workers, teachers, policy makers, other health professionals and members of the community.

Therapists and eating disorders specialists at the School of Medicine are joining investigators at a handful of sites around North America to evaluate anorexia nervosa treatments. Only 25 percent of anorexia patients recover completely, and the goal of this study is to improve those odds.

Critically ill patients who need a ventilator to breathe face a high risk of pneumonia. The lung infection, however, is exceedingly difficult to diagnose because a patient’s underlying condition often skews laboratory test results and masks pneumonia’s symptoms – a reality that can delay appropriate antibiotic treatment. Using gene chip technology, scientists at the School of Medicine demonstrate for the first time they can distinguish pneumonia associated with ventilator use from other serious illnesses.

Preventing Alzheimer’s disease is a goal of Raphael Kopan, Ph.D., professor of molecular biology and pharmacology at the Washington University School of Medicine. The moss plant Physcomitrella patens, studied in the laboratory of Ralph S. Quatrano, Ph.D., the Spencer T. Olin Professor and chair of the biology department on WUSTL’s Danforth Campus, might inch Kopan toward that goal.

“Chemical chaperones” might be able to help a mutant protein (green) do its job of removing excess cholesterol (blue) from cells.An unexpected finding turned out to be a clue leading researchers at the School of Medicine to propose a new treatment approach for Niemann-Pick disease, a rare, deadly neurodegenerative disorder. To overcome the genetic defect in Niemann-Pick disease, the researchers suggest that chemical compounds could potentially “chaperone” mutant protein molecules through the cell’s quality control machinery.

Scientists at the School of Medicine are seeking individuals who have depression and are overweight to volunteer for a study evaluating whether a diabetes drug might help improve mood. The five-year, NIH-funded study seeks 200 people with depression who are overweight and at risk for developing diabetes.