School of Medicine

As young people reach adulthood, preferences for sweet foods typically decline. But for people with obesity, research from the School of Medicine suggests that the drop-off may not be as steep and that the brain’s reward system operates differently in obese people than in thinner people. The findings are published in the journal Diabetes.

New Alzheimer’s disease research details a technique that speedily measures levels in the brain of a damaging protein fragment, and insight into why mutations in a specific gene increase the risk of developing the disease. Both studies, from researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, are available online in The Journal of Experimental Medicine.

Philip W. Majerus, MD, a renowned hematologist and professor emeritus of medicine at the School of Medicine, died at his home in St. Louis June 8 after a long illness. He was 79.

Joseph R. Williamson, MD, a distinguished diabetes researcher and former professor of pathology at the School of Medicine, died June 9, 2016, in St. Louis after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. He was 84.

Examining databases of proteins’ 3-D shapes, scientists at School of Medicine have identified more than 850 DNA mutations that appear to be linked to cancer. The information may expand the number of cancer patients who can benefit from existing drugs. The study, published June 13 in Nature Genetics, detailed a list of the mutations and associated drugs that may work against them.

Deanna Barch, chair of the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences in Arts & Sciences and the Gregory B. Couch Professor of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine, is the 2016 recipient of the mentor award from the Academic Women’s Network at Washington University.

Farshid Guilak, PhD, a professor of orthopaedic surgery at Washington University School of Medicine and director of research at Shriners Hospitals for Children-St. Louis, has received the Basic Science Research Award from the Osteoarthritis Research Society International.

With research that points to potential therapeutic targets for autoimmune diseases, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified genetic master switches that turn up – or down – the activity of specific types of immune cells.

New research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis indicates stem cells located in “pockets” in the intestine avoid contact with a prominent metabolite produced by beneficial microbes living in the gut. That metabolite – butyrate – restricts the proliferation of stem cells, potentially hampering the intestine from repairing itself after an injury or damage.

Sports medicine specialist Robert H. Brophy, MD, associate professor of orthopaedic surgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been elected to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons board of directors.