Medicine & Health

It’s been said that medicine keeps people alive, but art makes life worth living. Through Feb. 26, more than 50 people are exhibiting their paintings, photographs, sculptures, ceramics and mixed media in the first floor atrium of the School of Medicine’s Farrell Learning and Teaching Center. The pieces are part of the third annual Student, Faculty and Staff Art Show, sponsored by the Washington University School of Medicine Arts Commission.

Investigators at the School of Medicine are conducting a study to investigate factors related to memory in older adults. They are seeking healthy volunteers between 70 and 75 years of age who have siblings also willing to participate. Study participants will undergo a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan to determine the structure of the brain and a positron emission tomography (PET) scan to analyze amyloid levels in the brain.

Below is a link to the Washington University news release about the U.S. News & World Report undergraduate rankings for 2004-05: http://news-info.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/3627.html To view a full listing of U.S. News magazine, book and Web-only rankings for 2004-05, please visit the U.S. News & World Report site: http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/rankindex_brief.php

The pink color in the image on the right highlights cells producing excess mucus, a symptom of COPD. The image on the left shows normal lung tissue. Physicians say that smoking is by far the biggest cause of emphysema, but why doesn’t every smoker get the disease? If you asked WUSM physician Michael Holtzman that question, he might answer that for most cases of emphysema you need a mix of genes, viruses and cigarettes. Emphysema and the associated condition of chronic bronchitis are both disorders that contribute to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which is the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S.

The AIDS Clinical Trials Unit (ACTU) at theSchool of Medicine has received a $10 million grant to find new treatments for AIDS and HIV-related complications, such as dementia, neuropathy and cardiovascular disease. The seven-year grant is from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

An immune system gene that flunked its first tryout as an antiviral factor has triumphed in its second, proving that it can help fight the flu, herpes and the Sindbis virus. Picking the right opponents for interferon stimulated gene 15 (ISG15) to square off against proved to be key to uncovering its potential.

The growth factor G-CSF caused bone tumors to increase in size in lab mice. The mouse on the left did not receive G-CSF. The mouse on the right did.In laboratory tests on mice, researchers found that a medication often used to reduce toxic side effects of chemotherapy induced bone loss and helped tumors grow in bone. So the researchers are recommending increased awareness of bone health during cancer treatments. The medication studied is a growth factor commonly used to help cancer patients recover healthy blood counts after chemotherapy, which can destroy white blood cells.

By all expectations, it shouldn’t have worked as well as it did. A combination of bone marrow transplantation and gene therapy greatly lengthened the lives of laboratory mice doomed by a rapidly progressing, fatal neurodegenerative disorder also found in people. The School of Medicine researchers who made the discovery set out with low hopes for the combination therapy because on its own, each treatment was only modestly effective for the sick mice.

MuslinAnthony Muslin has been named the Oliver M. Langenberg Distinguished Professor of the Science and Practice of Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The professorship was established by the Edward Mallinckrodt Jr. Foundation in recognition of Oliver M. Langenberg’s outstanding contributions to the foundation’s success. Langenberg serves as the foundation’s chairman of the board.

Listed below are this month’s featured news stories. • Stop smoking by phone (week of Jan. 3) • Bacteria’s role in obesity (week of Jan. 10) • Biochemical marker for sleep loss (week of Jan. 17) • Unsafe drivers with dementia (week of Jan. 24) • Genetic link to nicotine dependence (week of Jan. 31)