School of Medicine

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.

Applications are now being accepted for the Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPORE) grants. The deadline is May 1.

Hospitals can improve patient care and reduce costs associated with coronary angioplasty if cardiologists perform more procedures through an artery in the wrist and if they discharge patients on the same day, finds a new study led by the School of Medicine.

David K. Tan, MD, an associate professor of emergency medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been elected president-elect of the National Association of EMS Physicians.