Medicine & Health

DeBaunMichael DeBaun has been named the Ferring Family Chair in Pediatric Cancer and Related Disorders at the School of Medicine and St. Louis Children’s Hospital. The endowed chair was established by John and Alison Ferring of St. Louis. DeBaun is professor of pediatrics, of biostatistics and of neurology at the School of Medicine and a pediatric hematologist/oncologist at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.

Washington University has awarded four Bear Cub Fund grants totaling $150,000 to support innovative research projects that could be attractive for licensing by commercial entities or serve as the foundation for a start-up company.

A set of promising new anticancer agents could have unforeseen risks in individuals with heart disease, suggests research at the School of Medicine. The anticancer drugs — which go by the strange name of hedgehog antagonists — interfere with a biochemical process that promotes growth in some cancer cells. But the researchers showed that interfering with this biochemical process in mice with heart disease led to further deterioration of cardiac function and ultimately death.

As if the emotional and financial impact of flood damage isn’t bad enough, floodwaters can also bring health problems. H. James Wedner, professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Allergy and Immunology at the School of Medicine, says after the water recedes, damp homes and businesses are fertile grounds for mold growth, which can cause allergic reactions and asthmatic symptoms in sensitive people.

A group of steroids found in female mouse urine goes straight to the male mouse’s head, according to researchers at the School of Medicine. They found the compounds activate nerve cells in the male mouse’s nose with unprecedented effectiveness.

Nutrition researchers at the School of Medicine have identified five common genetic variations that increase the risk of metabolic syndrome, a group of factors linked to heart disease and diabetes. Another variant they found appeared to protect against the condition.

The Burroughs Wellcome Fund (BWF) has recognized three researchers at the School of Medicine for their studies of infectious diseases. Instructor Jeffrey Henderson will receive the BWF 2008 Career Award for Medical Scientists. Assistant professors David Wang and Dong Yu will each receive a 2008 BWF Investigators in Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease award.

GoateInvestigators at the School of Medicine have identified a genetic variation associated with an earlier age of onset in Alzheimer’s disease. Unlike genetic mutations previously linked to rare, inherited forms of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease — which can strike people as young as their 30s or 40s — these variants influence an earlier presentation of symptoms in people affected by the more common, late-onset form of the disease.

Jeffrey Bradley, associate professor of radiation oncology, has been named the first director of the Kling Center for Proton Therapy, a facility for treating cancer patients with a new, highly precise form of radiation therapy. The center is scheduled to open in summer 2009 at the Siteman Cancer Center at the School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

Women born after 1944 began drinking alcohol at younger ages than their elders, and that appears to have put them at greater risk for alcoholism, according to researchers at the School of Medicine. On average, women born before 1944 began drinking at age 20. Those born after that started drinking alcohol at age 17, and they had a 50 to 80 percent greater risk for alcohol dependence, the researchers found.