Medicine & Health

Ismael Seáñez at the McKelvey School of Engineering is developing a new method to treat spinal cord injuries that uses a low-tech electrode array that effectively stimulates muscles in the legs in people with spinal cord injuries.

Philip Bayly and Jordan Escarcega at the McKelvey School of Engineering led a multi-institutional team to compare how the human brain deforms in response to movement using two types of magnetic resonance imaging. Such deformations are key to understanding traumatic brain injury but are challenging to study since the brain is hidden inside the skull.

Derek E. Byers, MD, PhD, has been named executive chair of the university’s Institutional Review Board, which reviews and approves protocols for research studies that involve human subjects. He begins the new role Tuesday, Aug. 1.

With support from a $3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a multidisciplinary team led by Hong Chen at the McKelvey School of Engineering seeks to integrate ultrasound with genetics to precisely modify neurons in the brain.

The Division of Physician-Scientists at the School of Medicine has named its 2023 Dean’s Scholars. The awardees will receive up to two years of financial support and mentorship, as well as dedicated lab time to conduct scientific research.

One of the planet’s greatest challenges is nourishing all of humanity while protecting the health of the planet itself. In a commentary published in the journal One Earth, Lora Iannotti, a professor at the Brown School, discusses how nutrition equity for vulnerable groups is vital in this effort.

David T. Curiel, MD, PhD, and Michael S. Diamond, MD, PhD, both of the School of Medicine, have received the Chancellor’s Award for Innovation and Entrepreneurship for their development of a nasal vaccine against the virus that causes COVID-19.

Researchers at the School of Medicine helped lead a major study, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), that uncovered rich cellular and molecular diversity in healthy and diseased kidneys, creating a kidney tissue atlas that will help further understanding of kidney injury and disease.

In a paper published in IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems, researchers at Washington University describe a portable uterine-contraction tracker: a cheap-to-make, flexible electrode patch.

Researchers at the School of Medicine and Lund University in Sweden have identified a form of tau that could serve as a marker to track Alzheimer’s progression. The marker also could speed drug development.