School of Medicine

David H. Perlmutter, MD, executive vice chancellor for medical affairs and dean of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been named chair-elect of the Medical Sciences Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). His three-year term began in February.

Five researchers at Washington University in St. Louis are being honored as outstanding scientists by the Academy of Science-St. Louis. University recipients of this year’s honors are faculty members Stephen Beverley, Liviu Mirica, Kater Murch, Edward Spitznagel and Peter Wyse Jackson.

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.

Jeffrey I. Gordon, MD, is expanding our understanding of human health into nonhuman realms, studying the bacteria that take up residence in the gut and help define who we become. Indeed, this research suggests you are what you — and your microbes — eat.

Jeff Gordon’s influence in the race to understand the human gut microbiome extends to the many students he has mentored at the Washington University School of Medicine. Here is a small sampling of his former students and postdocs, and where they are now.

David C. Van Essen, PhD, the Alumni Endowed Professor of Neurobiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, is being awarded the George A. Miller Prize for distinguished scholarship by the Cognitive Neuroscience Society.

William Hawkins, MD, never met the man who helped inspire him to become a cancer surgeon and researcher. Hawkins was born six months after his grandfather Gabriel Jooris, an artist and art restorer, died of the disease. But his and other losses guided Hawkins’ career path.

A new weight-loss therapy offers significantly overweight people a means to rid their bodies of some of what they eat before excess calories can be absorbed. Called aspiration therapy, the FDA-approved, nonsurgical therapy was developed by researchers at the School of Medicine and is available at Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital.

Taking popular heartburn medication for prolonged periods may lead to serious kidney damage, even in people who show no signs of kidney problems, according to researchers at the School of Medicine and the Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System.

The St. Louis American Foundation will honor Andwele Jolly and Frank Wilson of Washington University in St. Louis at its seventh annual Salute to Young Leaders Awards Thursday, Feb. 23, at the Four Seasons Hotel.