Page 1231 – The Source | Washington University in St. Louis

Youth regularly receive pro-marijuana tweets

Hundreds of thousands of American youth are following marijuana-related Twitter accounts and getting pro-pot messages several times each day, according to researchers at the School of Medicine. They said the tweets are cause for concern because young people are thought to be especially responsive to social media influences and because patterns of drug use tend to be established in a person’s late teens and early 20s.

Medicine & Health

Matava recognized as a top knee surgeon

Matthew J. Matava, MD, has been recognized as one of the top knee surgeons in North America by Orthopedics This Week, a newsletter for professionals in the field.

Science & Technology

Slaying bacteria with their own weapons

A novel antibiotic delivery system would exploit small molecules called siderophores that bacteria secrete to scavenge for iron in their environments. Each bacterium has its own system of siderophores, which it pumps across its cell membrane before releasing the iron the siderophores hold. If an antibiotic were linked to one of these scavenger molecules, it would be converted into a tiny Trojan horse that would smuggle antibiotics inside a bacterium’s cell membrane.

Medicine & Health

Some aggressive cancers may respond to anti-inflammatory drugs

New research from the School of Medicine raises the prospect that some cancer patients with aggressive tumors may benefit from a class of anti-inflammatory drugs currently in use against rheumatoid arthritis.

Medicine

Fighting parasitic infection inadvertently unleashes dormant virus

Signals from the immune system that help repel a common parasite inadvertently can cause a dormant viral infection to become active again, a new study from the School of Medicine shows. Pictured is a helminth parasite.

Medicine & Health

New Shell and Farrell cafes open July 1

The Shell Café in the McDonnell Sciences Building and the Farrell Café in the Farrell Learning and Teaching Center on the School of Medicine campus will be closed June 27 and 30. The cafes will reopen July 1 under new management.

Medicine & Health

Glaucoma drug helps restore vision loss linked to obesity

Vision researchers from 38 clinical sites, including the School of Medicine, have found that the eyesight of patients with an unusual vision disorder linked to obesity improves twice as much if they take a glaucoma drug and lose a modest amount of weight than if they only lose weight. Neuro-ophthalmologist Gregory Van Stavern, MD, led the study in St. Louis.

Medicine & Health

Researchers hone in on way to predict aggressiveness of oral cancer

Studying mouth cancer in mice, researchers led by Ravindra Uppaluri, MD, PhD, have found a way to predict the aggressiveness of similar tumors in people, an early step toward a diagnostic test that could guide treatment.

Humanities & Society

Insect diet helped early humans build bigger brains, study suggests

Figuring out how to survive on a lean-season diet of hard-to-reach ants, slugs and other bugs may have spurred the development of bigger brains and higher-level cognitive functions in the ancestors of humans and other primates, suggests research from Washington University in St. Louis.

Humanities & Society

Those with episodic amnesia are not ‘stuck in time,’ says philosopher Carl Craver

It has generally been assumed that people with episodic amnesia experience time much differently than those with more typical memory function. However, recent research by Washington University philosopher Carl F. Craver, PhD, disputes this type of claim. “There are sets of claims that sound empirical, like ‘These people are stuck in time.’ But if you ask, ‘Have you actually tested what they know about time?’ the answer is no.”