Medicine & Health

EberleinTimothy J. Eberlein has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine, one of the highest honors medical scientists in the United States can receive. He was selected in recognition of his professional achievements in medical science and health care and leadership in issues affecting public health.

Investigators at the School of Medicine are launching several projects aimed at preventing the global spread of HIV infection by reducing high-risk behaviors in vulnerable populations, including women and youth. These projects build upon work that has been ongoing since 1989.

A minimally invasive approach to curing the most common heart rhythm abnormality, atrial fibrillation, takes half the time of the traditional surgical procedure but is equally effective, according to research at the School of Medicine.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are seeking inner-city children and adolescents for a national asthma study. General asthma rates have been steadily rising, but the most dramatic increases have occurred among urban youth.

Is depression rooted in our genes?Researchers at the School of Medicine are recruiting volunteers as part of an international study designed to uncover the genetic basis of major depression. Identification of susceptibility genes could revolutionize the current understanding of the disease and guide the design of new drugs to prevent or treat this debilitating disorder.

CiechanoverAaron Ciechanover, M.D., D.Sc., visiting professor of pediatrics at the School of Medicine and Research Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel, was selected Oct. 6 to receive the 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

When bright light shines in the eye, the pupil constricts. In dim light, it dilates. Now investigators at the School of Medicine have demonstrated in chickens that a protein called cryptochrome plays a key role in that reflex.

Singer songwriter Chris Hobler has teamed up with the School of Medicine to help create a new center dedicated to neurological research. Hobler suffers from ALS, commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Read more in the following article written by Tina Hesman of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

To stick to cells in the respiratory tract and start an infection, the bacterium Haemophilus influenza has to secrete a glue-like protein. Researchers at the School of Medicine recently reported that a study of the valve that lets out the glue has produced some surprising information.

A well-known enzyme present in the skin and other tissues turns out to be a molecule-sized motor that extracts its fuel from the road it runs on, according to researchers at the School of Medicine. Their discovery appears in the Oct. 1 issue of Science.