Medicine & Health

Stepping out of your own head might seem like the last thing one would want to do to avoid tripping and falling, but neuroscientists who study the brain’s navigation and orientation systems recognize this change of perspective as a necessity. To successfully orient yourself and move about the environment, you have to look at the world both from the viewpoint of your own sensory organs, which are fixed in your head and body, and from the viewpoint of your relationship to the space around you and to the force of gravity.

Graham Colditz and the Your Disease Risk Web siteA few clicks of the mouse tell visitors to the “Your Disease Risk” Web site their risk for cancer, heart disease, diabetes, stroke and osteoporosis. The Siteman Cancer Center at the School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital recently launched this easy-to-use tool, which offers a wealth of information about risk factors and prevention strategies for five prominent diseases affecting millions of Americans.

A new brace that maintains correction for clubfoot, a birth defect in which the foot is turned in toward the body, has shown better compliance and fewer complications than the traditional brace used to treat the condition. Matthew B. Dobbs, M.D., associate professor of orthopedic surgery at the School of Medicine, designed the new dynamic brace, called the Dobbs brace, to allow active movement, preserve muscle strength in the foot and ankle and be less restrictive to the child than the traditional brace.

In a unanimous decision, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that tissue and blood samples donated to the School of Medicine for prostate cancer research belong to the institution. The three-judge panel said the donors voluntarily made a gift to Washington University when they donated their biological samples and, therefore, the specimens belong to the school.

Susan E. Mackinnon, M.D., was named president of the American Association of Plastic Surgeons at its recent annual meeting in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Mackinnon is the Sydney M. Jr. and Robert H. Shoenberg Professor of Surgery and chief of the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at the School of Medicine.

Women who get most of their daily calcium from food have healthier bones than women whose calcium comes mainly from supplemental tablets, say researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Surprisingly, this is true even though the supplement takers have higher average calcium intake. More…

A probe of the upper echelons of the human brain’s chain-of-command has found strong evidence that there are not one but two complementary commanders in charge of the brain, according to neuroscientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. It’s as if Captains James T. Kirk and Jean-Luc Picard were both on the bridge and in command of the same starship Enterprise.

St. Louis researchers have identified common DNA variations that underlie susceptibility to fever after smallpox vaccination. Their finding is the first to link individual differences written into the genetic code with a vaccine-related complication – albeit a mild one. Most of the eight genetic alterations the scientists identified increased the likelihood of fever after smallpox vaccination. A few, however, reduced fever risk.

Scientists probing the details of viral infection have discovered an intriguing surprise: in mice, herpes viruses hijack their host cells’ tools for fixing DNA damage and use those tools to enhance their own reproduction.

Listed below are this month’s featured news stories. • Stress and Alzheimer’s (week of June 6) • Dietary calcium is better (week of June 13) • Treating prostate problems (week of June 20) • Fireworks safety (week of June 27)