Medicine & Health

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.

Van GelderRussell N. Van Gelder, M.D., Ph.D., is the new Bernard Becker Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the School of Medicine. Larry J. Shapiro, M.D., executive vice chancellor for medical affairs and dean of the School of Medicine, announced the appointment.

Moving new technology from the laboratory to patients’ bedsides takes more than just a clever idea. It often requires the combined expertise of university researchers who develop the technology and industry scientists who understand what it takes to get innovations to the marketplace. That’s exactly what two Washington University scientists had in mind when they created a consortium of experts from academia and industry.

A free play that uses a life-sized gelatin cadaver to explore the art and science of anatomy will take place Oct. 24 and 25 at the School of Medicine. “Corpus Delicti: Just Desserts,” which recently had a sold-out run at the University of Chicago, takes place in Holland during the Age of Enlightenment and is loosely based on Rembrandt’s 1632 painting, “The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp.”

The fourth week of October features three diverse and exciting speakers in the Assembly Series: Tony award-winner B.D. Wong will speak on breaking down cultural barriers in “All the World’s a Stage: From Exclusion to Inclusion” at 4 p.m., Monday, October 23 in Graham Chapel. Iranian born graphic novelist, Marjane Satrapi will discuss her work at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, October 25 in Graham Chapel. Cornell mathematician Steven Strogatz will speak on “Sync: The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order” at 4 p.m., Thursday, October 26 in Rebstock Hall, Room 215.

PolonskyKenneth S. Polonsky, M.D., has been elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors medical scientists in the United States can receive. Polonsky was honored for his professional achievement in the health sciences, specifically in the area of diabetes.