Researchers find new learning strategy

In the Thoroughman laboratory, volunteers play games on a computer screeen using a robotic arm so that Thoroughman and his colleagues can study how people learn motor skills.Central to being human is the ability to adapt: We learn from our mistakes. Previous theories of learning have assumed that the size of learning naturally scales with the size of the mistake. But now biomedical engineers at Washington University in St. Louis have shown that people can use alternative strategies: Learning does not necessarily scale proportionally with error.

August 2006 Radio Service

Listed below are this month’s featured news stories. • ADHD kids not receiving treatment (week of Aug. 2) • How tumors cloak themselves (week of Aug. 9) • New info about macular degeneration (week of Aug. 16) • Why steroids weaken bones (week of Aug. 23) • The brain’s ‘cold sheild’ (week of Aug. 30)

Nanotechnology enables low-dose treatment of atherosclerotic plaques

These before (left) and after images show the effects of fumagillin-laden nanoparticles in a rabbit aorta.In laboratory tests, one very low dose of a drug was enough to show an effect on notoriously tenacious artery-clogging plaques. But it wasn’t so much the drug itself as how it was delivered. Fumagillin — a drug that can inhibit the growth of new blood vessels that feed atherosclerotic plaques — was sent directly to the base of plaques by microscopically small spheres called nanoparticles.

Medical steroid’s baffling connection to osteoporosis becomes clearer

Dark areas (marked with arrows) in the first image show a process of bone renewal and strengthening. The second image shows a reduction in this process after a cortisone injection.Scientists are closing in on the solution to a persistent medical puzzle: why do high doses of cortisone, widely prescribed for asthma, rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory and autoimmune conditions, weaken bones? Researchers at the School of Medicine have identified osteoclasts, cells that dismantle old bone, as the essential link between osteoporosis and cortisone.

Virgin named head of pathology and immunology

VirginHerbert W. “Skip” Virgin has been named head of the Department of Pathology and Immunology at the School of Medicine. Virgin came to the department in 1990 as an instructor and became a professor in 2002. As the new department head, he becomes Edward Mallinckrodt Professor of Pathology and Immunology.

Washington University physicians embrace e-records

Computer screens are replacing X-rays and paper files.Surgeons and staff no longer wonder where’s the chart in the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Washington University School of Medicine. That’s because the division switched from using paper files to a fully electronic medical record system. Electronic records are thought to improve the quality of care, reduce errors and improve efficiency. The federal government has set a goal for widespread adoption of e-records in medical practices within the next 10 years.

New diabetes drug may have welcome side effect: weight loss

WellingThe Washington University Diabetes Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital focuses on providing patients with the latest technology, treatments and clinical research. Some patients at the center are receiving a new diabetes drug that may give a welcome side effect — weight loss. Research lab supervisor Cris Welling began taking Byetta about 10 months ago and has lost 40 pounds.
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