School of Medicine

Momoko Oyama, a Washington University graduate on the verge of beginning her third year of medical school at the university, died Sunday, June 14, 2020, at her campus apartment in St. Louis. The cause of death is not yet known. Oyama, who had planned to become a neonatologist, was 24.

The Cordell Institute for Policy in Medicine & Law has received a $100,000 grant from Microsoft Corp. to hire a fellow to work on the institute’s Cloud Civil Liberties Project.

An interruption in blood flow to the brain causes a stroke. A new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis reveals that stroke care in rural areas lags significantly behind that available in urban centers.

Faculty at the Washington University School of Medicine have joined an international effort led by the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics and the World Health Organization (WHO) to evaluate COVID-19 antibody tests for use as diagnostics in places with limited resources.

Gary Patti is among the 31 finalists for the Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists, selected from 305 nominations across the United States, the organization announced June 17. He is the first honoree from Washington University in St. Louis in the award’s seven-year history.

A combination of IV and oral antibiotics can effectively treat invasive infections in people who inject illicit drugs, according to a study from Washington University School of Medicine. The findings mean that patients can leave the hospital and complete taking their prescribed antibiotics at home.

A neuroscientist’s arm cast led him and fellow School of Medicine researchers to find previously undetected neuronal pulses in the human brain that activate after an immobilizing illness or injury. The pulses appeared on MRI scans used to measure brain activity.

Life-changing innovations continue to emerge from the university thanks to creative faculty research, cross-collaboration and the aid of the Office of Technology Management.

In his book The Genealogical Adam & Eve: Surprising Science of Universal Ancestry, S. Joshua Swamidass, MD, associate professor of Pathology & Immunology in the School of Medicine and of Biomedical Engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering, uses science to show that Adam and Eve could have existed and that theology and science don’t lie nearly so far apart.

Mayssa H. Mokalled, assistant professor of developmental biology at Washington University School of Medicine, has received the 2020 H.W. Mossman Award in Developmental Biology from the American Association for Anatomy.