Medicine & Health

Itching for a better anti-itch remedy? Your wish may soon be granted now that scientists at the School of Medicine have identified the first gene for the itch sensation in the central nervous system. The discovery could rapidly lead to new treatments directly targeting itchiness and providing relief for chronic and severe itching.

With today’s rapid rate of medical advancement, it’s hard to imagine that an over-the-counter drug introduced in the 1800s could still be widely popular and effective. But due to its low cost and versatility, millions of Americans still keep a bottle of aspirin in their medicine cabinets.

In recent years, sports hernias have sidelined many high-level athletes for months and, occasionally, prevented a return to competitive sports all together. New research at the School of Medicine shows that surgical repair of sports hernias using tension-free mesh, coupled with an innovative rehabilitation program, successfully returned athletes to competition in 93 percent of cases.

GoldbergAnne Carol Goldberg, M.D. was elected president of the National Lipid Association (NLA) at the association’s recent 2007 Annual Scientific Sessions in Scottsdale, Ariz. Goldberg is an associate professor of medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and on staff at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

StanleySamuel Stanley, vice chancellor of research, has been named an Ambassador in Research!America’s Paul G. Rogers Society for Global Health Research. Stanley is now one of 50 of the nation’s foremost global health experts who have joined forces to increase awareness about the critical need for greater U.S. public and private investment in research to improve global health.

Listed below are this month’s featured news stories. • New treatment for obesity? (week of July 4) • Heading off vaccine side-effects (week of July 11) • Brain’s chain-of-command (week of July 18) • Repairing ‘sports hernias’ (week of July 25)

Lung transplants have been performed successfully for more than 20 years in humans but never before in mice – until now. Surgeons at the School of Medicine have developed the first mouse model of lung transplantation, and they’re hoping it will help explain why the success of the procedure in humans lags far behind other solid organ transplants.

Researchers at the School of Medicine have found that a protein absorbs lipids in the upper part of the intestine, and they believe its key role in this process may provide a novel approach for obesity treatment in the future. Principal investigator Nada Abumrad first identified the protein, CD36, that facilitates the uptake of fatty acids.

YokoyamaWayne M. Yokoyama, M.D., is the new director of the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) at the School of Medicine. The appointment went into effect July 1. Students in the program graduate with combined medical and doctoral degrees. The MSTP at Washington University is the largest M.D.-Ph.D. program in the nation with 183 students.

An antibody frequently used as a diagnostic marker for multiple sclerosis (MS) is present at greater levels in the cerebrospinal fluid of blacks with MS than Caucasians with the disease. The findings suggest that genetic differences among ethnic groups contribute to changes in the immune system, affecting susceptibility to MS. And they add another piece to a tantalizing but stubborn puzzle: Why do blacks get MS less often than other ethnic groups but suffer more serious symptoms when they develop the disease?