Medicine & Health

Researchers hoping to better understand the development of the infant brain have long been stymied by a formidable obstacle: babies just don’t want to sit still for brain scans. “There have been some studies that obtained brain scans of infants while they were napping or sedated, but what we’d really like to do is to scan their brains when they’re sitting on a parent’s lap, seeing new things, hearing new words and interacting with the environment,” says Joseph Culver, Ph.D., assistant professor of radiology at the School of Medicine.

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

Good housing in St. Louis (above) contrasted with poor housing nearby.Studying people in their homes and neighborhoods, investigators have found that poor housing conditions contribute to the risk for diabetes in urban, middle-aged African-Americans. A team of investigators from the School of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine and other institutions conducted the study. They published their findings in the Aug. 15 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology.

GrossHeart disease hits people with diabetes twice as often as people without diabetes. In those with diabetes, cardiovascular complications occur at an earlier age and often result in premature death, making heart disease the major killer of diabetic people. But why is heart disease so prevalent among diabetics?

Many people with long-standing high blood pressure develop heart failure. But some don’t. Daniel Kelly and colleagues at the School of Medicine and other institutions are trying to figure out what could explain that difference. Their latest research reveals that impaired energy production in heart muscle may underlie heart failure in some hypertensive patients.

Project ARK, the St. Louis area’s only organization that coordinates medical care, social support and prevention services for children, youth, young adults, women and families living with or at risk for HIV infection, has received a $6.7 million, five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

A $5.7 million grant will establish a new center for kidney disease research at the School of Medicine. Directed by Marc R. Hammerman, the Chromalloy Professor of Renal Diseases in Medicine, the center will investigate the underlying causes of kidney disease to speed the development of new treatments. The center’s funding comes from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Promotions were recently announced for two key members of Medical Alumni and Development Programs. Patricia Gregory has been named assistant vice chancellor and executive director of medical corporate and foundation relations, and David Shearrer has been named executive director of development for clinical programs.

Listed below are this month’s featured news stories. • Rotator cuff repair (week of Aug. 1) • Better treatment for itching (week of Aug. 8) • New risk factor for diabetes (week of Aug. 15) • Filtering out side effects (week of Aug. 22) • Treating post-partum depression (week of Aug. 29)

Two recently discovered control networks that govern voluntary brain activity in adults start life as a single network in children, report neuroscientists at the School of Medicine. Researchers previously showed the networks supervise most goal-oriented brain activity, enlisting the specialized talents of multiple brain regions for goal-oriented tasks as diverse as reading a word, listening to music or searching for a star. They were surprised to find the two networks merged together in children.