School of Medicine

Geetika Khanna, MD, a professor of radiology, has been named chief of pediatric radiology for Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Khanna, who served as interim chief for the past year, also assumes the role of radiologist-in-chief at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.

School of Medicine researchers have identified a pathway in the brain that seems to connect exposure to adverse experiences during early childhood with depression and problems with physical health in teens and preteens.

Researchers at the School of Medicine have identified how the malaria parasite gets into and out of red blood cells, and chemical compounds that block the process. The findings could lead to desperately needed new drugs for the deadly mosquito-borne disease.

More than a decade of data indicates teens have become far less likely to abuse alcohol, nicotine and illicit drugs, and they also are less likely to engage in delinquent behaviors, such as fighting and stealing, according to results of a national survey analyzed by researchers at the School of Medicine.

Bryan Meyers, MD, chief of the general thoracic surgery section at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been named chair of the American Board of Thoracic Surgery. Named to the position in September, he will serve as chair for two years.

Georges C. Benjamin, MD, a highly regarded health administrator and former secretary of health for Maryland, will deliver the 22nd annual Homer G. Phillips Health Lecture at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 27, at the School of Medicine. Register to attend by Wednesday, Oct. 25.

Jeffrey Fletcher Moley, MD, a highly regarded professor of surgery and chief of the Section of Endocrine and Oncologic Surgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, died Sunday, Oct. 15, 2017, at his home in Kirkwood. He was 64.

A new immunotherapy that targets certain blood cancers is being offered for the first time at Siteman Cancer Center. Newly approved by the FDA for types of advanced non-Hodgkin lymphoma in adults, the CAR-T cell therapy harnesses a patient’s own immune system to fight cancer.

Scientists at the School of Medicine in St. Louis, working with collaborators in Sri Lanka, have shown that a portable scanning device can measure limb enlargement and disfigurement faster and more easily in patients with elephantiasis.

For Ira Kodner, MD, emeritus professor of surgery, Frankenstein has many ethical lessons for young scientists, physicians and society at large.