Medicine & Health

Metabolism researchers at the School of Medicine have found that although it does not extend maximum lifespan in mice, activating a protein in muscle tissue increases average lifespan and prevents some age-related diseases. The researchers believe a similar approach may someday help people avoid age-related problems such as atherosclerosis, diabetes, hypertension and even some cancers.

Pratim Biswas has a method that controls the size of the nanoparticles he makes, opening up possibilities for new nanotechnology applications and different techniques.In a world that constantly strives for bigger and bigger things, WUSTL’s Pratim Biswas, Ph.D., the Stifel and Quinette Jens Professor and chair of the Department of Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, is working to make things smaller and smaller. Biswas conducts research on nanoparticles, which are the building blocks for nanotechnology. For the first time, Biswas has shown that he can independently control the size of the nanoparticles that he makes, keeping their other properties the same. He’s also shown with his technique that the nanoparticles can be made in large quantities in scalable systems, opening up the possibility for more applications and different techniques.

Psychiatry researchers at the School of Medicine have found that a clinical diagnosis of alcohol dependence in young adults is associated with having a high number of sex partners. Their study, published in the December issue of the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, also found links between a conduct disorder diagnosis and high numbers of sexual partners as well as between problem drinking and more partners.

Children born with Marfan syndrome, a genetic disorder involving the connective tissue, have a variety of physical signs – disproportionately long arms, legs, fingers and toes; scoliosis or other spinal curvature; nearsightedness; unusually large lungs; and stretch marks on the skin. But one of the most dangerous effects of the disease is the development of an enlarged aorta, which can lead to rupture of the heart’s largest artery and to sudden death.

In these PET images, a cervical tumor glows brightly before therapy (left), but is no longer visible after therapy.Whole-body PET (positron emission tomography) scans done three months after completion of cervical cancer therapy can ensure that patients are disease-free or warn that further interventions are needed, according to a study at the School of Medicine. “This is the first time we can say that we have a reliable test to follow cervical cancer patients after therapy,” says Julie Schwarz, a Barnes-Jewish Hospital resident in the Department of Radiation Oncology.

David Kilper/WUSTL Photo(Left to right) Cindy Richard-Fogal, Ph.D., research scientist in biology in Arts & Sciences, Elaine Frawley, graduate research assistant, and Robert Kranz, Ph.D., professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, examine an *E. coli* culture.Robert G. Kranz, Ph.D., professor of biology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has been awarded two grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study pathways in bioenergy conversion. The first, for $1,203,250, is a long-term NIH R01 renewal that began Aug. 1 titled “Cytochrome c Biogenesis.” The renewal award means that NIH has funded Kranz continuously for 22 years.

A multinational team of researchers has shown for the first time that the immune system can stop the growth of a cancerous tumor without actually killing it. Scientists have been working for years to use the immune system to eradicate cancers, a technique known as immunotherapy. The new findings prove an alternate to this approach exists: When the cancer can’t be killed with immune attacks, it may be possible to find ways to use the immune system to contain it.

Listed below are this month’s featured news stories. • Age-related macular degeneration (week of Nov. 7) • An eye on curing diabetes (week of Nov. 14) • Obesity and heart disease in kids (week of Nov. 21) • Depression and diabetes (week of Nov. 28)

The cowpox virus, a much milder cousin of the deadly smallpox virus, can keep infected host cells from warning the immune system that they have been compromised, researchers at the School of Medicine have found. The scientists also showed that more virulent poxviruses, such as the strains of monkeypox prevalent in Central Africa, likely have the same ability.

A gene linked to pediatric brain tumors is an essential driver of early brain development, researchers at the School of Medicine have found. The study, published in October in Cell Stem Cell, reveals that the neurofibromatosis 1 (NF1) gene helps push stem cells down separate paths that lead them to become two major types of brain cells: support cells known as astrocytes and brain neurons.