School of Medicine

A new study from Washington University School of Medicine has found that mice infected with Chikungunya virus get less sick and are less likely to transmit the virus to mosquitoes if they have healthy gut microbiomes.

A team of wildlife biologists and infectious disease experts, including some at the School of Medicine, propose in an article published in Science a decentralized, global wildlife biosurveillance system to identify animal viruses that have the potential to cause human disease – before the next pandemic emerges.

Parasitologist L. David Sibley at the School of Medicine is leading an international effort to find drugs to cure toxoplasmosis, a parasitic disease characterized by vision problems and brain complications.

President Trump’s recent announcement to suspend funding to the World Health Organization is “counter to our interests in addressing our needs to save the lives and further the health of Americans, as well as an abandonment of America’s position as a global leader,” says the director of Washington University’s Institute for Public Health.

An experimental drug for a rare, inherited form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) has shown promise in a phase 1/phase 2 clinical trial conducted at Washington University School of Medicine and other sites.

Thomas A. Ferguson, professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences at  Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has received a Research to Prevent Blindness Stein Innovation Award.

Adrienne Davis and Joan Luby will receive Washington University in St. Louis’ 2020 faculty achievement awards, Chancellor Andrew D. Martin announced. Also, Douglas F. Covey will be honored for innovation.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Georgia Tech are leading a study using computer algorithms to identify stressors on social media linked to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The School of Medicine’s Jennifer A. Philips, MD, PhD, has set up a screening platform to test compounds for activity against the COVID-19 virus. Her lab has screened dozens of compounds and is prepared to accept more suggestions of promising candidate molecules.

The crowdsourced supercomputing project Folding@home, based at the School of Medicine, shifted focus months ago to coronavirus research. Now, units at Washington University and elsewhere, individuals and companies have joined the effort.