Medicine & Health

The anthropological works of Glenn Conroy, Ph.D., professor of anatomy and neurobiology and of anthropology, are on display through January 2008 in the Farrell Learning and Teaching Center.

Researchers at the School of Medicine are seeking volunteers with Parkinson’s disease for two studies. One is investigating the effects of antidepressant drugs on depression and motor function. The second study is assessing the safety and effectiveness of a drug for Parkinson’s patients who also have psychotic symptoms. In the NIH-funded depression study, investigators are evaluating paroxetine (Paxil) and venlafaxine XR (Effexor) for their success in alleviating depression and for their potential effect on motor function in Parkinson’s patients.

An innovative cancer imaging center at the School of Medicine has received a five-year, $10 million grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The grant will fund a second cycle of research at the Washington University Molecular Imaging Center, where scientists from many different specialties collaborate on advanced imaging projects.

An estimated one million smokers will attempt to kick the habit this month as part of the annual Great American Smokeout. The Siteman Cancer Center at Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital will offer its annual “Siteman Smokeout for Life,” Thursday, November 15 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Center for Advanced Medicine at the corner of Euclid and Forest Park.

Researchers at the School of Medicine are seeking volunteers who are slightly overweight or who have elevated blood pressure. They want to see whether it’s possible to reduce the progression of atherosclerosis in healthy people by giving low doses of the malaria drug chloroquine.

Normal lung air passage (left) and asthmatic lung air passage after viral infectionBabies who get severe respiratory viral infections are much more likely to suffer from asthma as they get older. Now researchers at the School of Medicine have pinpointed a key step in the development of asthma in mice after a severe respiratory infection. They suggest that medications designed to interfere with this mechanism could potentially prevent many cases of childhood asthma.

ImaiThe body’s fat cells help the pancreas do its job of secreting insulin, according to research at the School of Medicine led by senior author Shin-Ichiro Imai. This previously unrecognized process ultimately could lead to new methods to improve glucose metabolism in type 2 diabetic or insulin-resistant people.

Scientists at the School of Medicine, working as part of an international team of researchers, have completed a massive effort to map the genetic changes underlying the most commonly diagnosed form of lung cancer. Their results are published in the Nov. 4 advance online issue of the journal Nature.

“An Impending Influenza Pandemic? What Has Been Learned From 1918?” is the focus of a St. Louis community forum from 7:45-11:45 a.m. Nov. 9 in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom in Anheuser-Busch Hall. The program features discussions by city, county and national health directors and explores how St. Louis can use lessons from past flu outbreaks to prepare for a global bird flu pandemic that some experts see lurking on the horizon.

ApteStudying a mouse model of age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in older Americans, scientists at the School of Medicine have found age is key in determining whether damaging blood vessels will form beneath the retina and contribute to vision loss. The scientists, led by principal investigator Rajendra Apte, discovered that specific immune cells called macrophages play a role in the disease process in older mice by failing to block the development of abnormal, leaky blood vessels behind the retina.