Medicine & Health

Nearly 70 percent of kidney transplant patients get short-term drug therapy initially administered during surgery to help prevent rejection. In the first head-to-head comparison of the two drugs most commonly given to ward off acute kidney rejection, an international study led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis shows that one – anti-thymocyte globulin – is superior.

Studies of a rare genetic condition that increases cancer risk have unveiled a potential treatment for metabolic syndrome, a common disorder that afflicts as many as one in every four American adults and puts them at sharply increased risk of type 2 diabetes and clogged arteries.

Vagelos will explore these examples in detail for his talk on “The Social Responsibility of Business” to be held at 4 p.m. Monday, November 13, in Graham Chapel. The program will also feature a panel discussion featuring Washington University-associated business experts. It is the final installment of the Danforth Lecture Series.

The Law School’s Public Interest Law and Policy Speakers Series, in conjunction with the Federalist Society and the Assembly Series, will present Richard Epstein at 3 p.m. Tuesday, October 31, in the Anheuser Busch Moot Courtroom (Room 310). The lecture is free and open to the public. The well-known libertarian and influential legal scholar will discuss the question, “Has Modern Complex Litigation Outgrown the Federal Rules of Civil Procedures? The Case of Antitrust.”

Richard Epstein and bell hooks will speak Oct. 31 and Nov. 1, respectively.

ColditzGraham A. Colditz, M.D., Dr.P.H., has been named the Niess-Gain Professor and associate director of Prevention and Control at the Siteman Cancer Center at the School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital. He will have overall responsibility for overseeing research, education, and community outreach in cancer prevention sponsored by the Center.

Scientists have identified a naturally occurring enzyme that can break down a key component of the brain plaques characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease. The finding may provide researchers with new opportunities to understand what goes wrong in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients and could one day help them seek new therapies.

The School of Medicine, a research leader in Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, stroke and schizophrenia, will be among the first recipients of a major new National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant to facilitate study of nervous system disorders. The NIH Blueprint for the Neurosciences Grant will provide $8 million to the University over five years.

FerkolThomas Ferkol, M.D., has been named director of the Division of Allergy and Pulmonary Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Ferkol, associate professor of pediatrics and of cell biology and physiology, will continue as director of the Pediatric Pulmonology Fellowship Program and as director of the Cystic Fibrosis Center.

DNA ligase encircles the DNA double helix.Scientists investigating an important DNA-repair enzyme now have a better picture of the final steps of a process that glues together, or ligates, the ends of DNA strands to restore the double helix. The enzyme, DNA ligase, repairs the millions of DNA breaks generated during the normal course of a cell’s life.