School of Medicine

An international team led by Gary Weil, MD, of the School of Medicine is poised to help eliminate two disabling tropical diseases as public health problems. A large grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will fund clinical trials and other studies aimed at preventing new cases of elephantiasis and river blindness.

Philanthropists Andrew and Barbara Taylor and the Crawford Taylor Foundation have committed $10 million to the School of Medicine to continue research to investigate the scientific underpinnings of psychiatric illnesses, with the goal of improving diagnosis and treatment.

Centene Corp. and the School of Medicine announced a partnership April 8 to transform and accelerate research into treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, breast cancer, diabetes and obesity. As part of the partnership, Centene will fund up to $100 million over 10 years in research at the university.

Ryan C. Fields, MD, a noted cancer surgeon and researcher, has been named chief of the Section of Surgical Oncology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Robert W. Gereau, the Dr. Seymour and Rose T. Brown Professor of Anesthesiology at Washington University School of Medicine, is working to discover the genetic and molecular roots of pain, with a goal of reversing the processes that cause pain and make it so disabling.

Developmental biologist Samantha Morris, at the School of Medicine, and her lab have developed a cellular tracking system. Watch a video to learn about the work, which is among the finalists in the STAT Madness competition. Vote online in the semifinal round through Tuesday.

Mistakes in DNA are known to drive cancer growth. But a new study, from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, heavily implicates a genetic phenomenon commonly known as “jumping genes” in the growth of tumors.

Vladimir Kefalov, professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been awarded the 2019 Bressler Prize by the Lighthouse Guild, an organization dedicated to reducing the burden of living with vision loss.

An interdisciplinary team of researchers from the McKelvey School of Engineering and the School of Medicine have found the most efficient length for cilia, the tiny hair-like structures designed to sweep out the body’s fluids, cells and microbes to stay healthy.

Barbara B. Warner, MD, a physician-scientist noted for her commitment to critically ill infants, has been named director of the Division of Newborn Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.