Medicine & Health

Washington University pediatricians who treat patients at St. Louis Children’s Hospital are part of a major research effort to investigate how the novel coronavirus affects children and young adults, including its role in a rare but serious inflammatory syndrome.

School of Medicine researchers have found that new variants of the virus that causes COVID-19 can evade antibodies that work against the original form of the virus, potentially undermining the effectiveness of vaccines and antibody-based drugs being used to prevent or treat COVID-19.

The drug buprenorphine is an effective treatment for opioid use disorder, but many who misuse opioids also take benzodiazepines to treat anxiety and similar conditions. School of Medicine researchers found that buprenorphine lowered the overdose risk, even in people who also took benzodiazepines such as Valium or Xanax.

A study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis provides evidence that the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 can invade and replicate inside heart muscle cells, causing cell death and interfering with heart muscle contraction.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine have received an eight-year, $8.8 million grant to study ion channels as potential targets for new drugs to treat disorders affecting the brain, heart and muscles.

A new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has uncovered a previously unknown role for exosomes in inflammatory respiratory diseases. The study has implications for finding new therapies.

Applications are now being accepted for the Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPORE) in Leukemia Career Enhancement Program and the Developmental Research Program, under principal investigator Daniel Link, MD, at the School of Medicine. Those interested should apply by April 30.

Samantha Kirstin Barrick, a postdoctoral scholar in biochemistry and molecular biophysics and in the laboratory of Michael J. Greenberg at the School of Medicine, received a three-year $208,182 fellowship award from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine and the University of Minnesota Medical School are leading a large, multicenter study to find out whether maintaining platelets in cold storage is as effective in reducing blood loss as platelets stored at room temperature.

Researchers at the School of Medicine have discovered that the ability to interact with other elements of the immune system is an indispensable part of the effectiveness of monoclonal antibodies. The findings could help improve the design of the next generation of COVID-19 drugs.