School of Medicine

Outdoor air pollution has long been linked to major health conditions such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. A new study now adds kidney disease to the list, according to researchers at the School of Medicine and the Veterans Affairs (VA) St. Louis Health Care System.

The mummified remains of a 7-month-old baby boy and pieces of skull from two teenage Triceratops underwent computed tomography (CT) scans Sept. 16 at the School of Medicine, in hopes researchers could learn more about the ancient past.

Brian Froelke, MD, assistant professor of emergency medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been named the emergency medical services medical adviser to the Center for Patient Safety.

A study led by researchers at the School of Medicine shows that the presence of ApoE4 exacerbates the brain damage caused by toxic tangles of a different Alzheimer’s-associated protein: tau. In the absence of ApoE, tau tangles did very little harm to brain cells.

Research at the School of Medicine has identified a way to convert bad, white fat into good, brown fat, at least in mice. The findings raise the prospect of developing more effective treatments, in people, for obesity and diabetes related to weight gain.

An ongoing study at the School of Medicine is aimed at understanding what factors may increase or decrease the risk of developing asthma in childhood.

Farrokh Dehdashti, MD, Robert C. McKinstry, MD, PhD, and Pamela Woodard, MD, have been named division directors at Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Although medical marijuana is now legal in more than half of the states in the country, researchers at the School of Medicine have found that medical marijuana is rarely addressed in medical education.

Researchers at the School of Medicine have analyzed Medicare claims data of more than 200,000 people to develop an algorithm to predict whether a patient one day will be diagnosed with Parkinson’s.

The School of Medicine’s innovative program to introduce lay people to the world of medicine will get underway again later this month. Register now to take part in Mini-Medical School, a series of lectures and hands-on labs on everything from surgery to back pain to Alzheimer’s disease.