School of Medicine

Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) often receive portable oxygen therapy to help raise oxygen levels and allow them to breathe easier. But a major study published Oct. 26 in The New England Journal of Medicine indicates that supplemental oxygen does not benefit a large group of patients with COPD: those with moderately low levels of oxygen in the blood.

Using MRIs, researchers at the School of Medicine have identified areas in the brains of children with Tourette’s syndrome that appear markedly different from the same areas in the brains of children who don’t have the neuropsychiatric disorder. The findings were published online Oct. 25 in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

Joseph Pangelinan has been named director of cultural awareness and diversity in the Department of Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine.

Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Stanford University report that they have designed small compounds that have the potential to correct the mitochondrial dysfunction that leads to Charcot-Marie-Tooth and other conditions involving mitochondria.

Scientists have linked mutations in a single gene to autism in people who have a rare tumor syndrome typically diagnosed in childhood. The findings, in patients with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), may lead to a better understanding of the genetic roots of autism in the wider population.

Clay F. Semenkovich, the Irene E. and Michael M. Karl Professor and director of the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism & Lipid Research at the School of Medicine, has received the Edwin Bierman Award from the American Diabetes Association.

As part of the White House BRAIN Initiative, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have received two grants to develop tools to map and activate pathways in the brain using light.

Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has received a two-year, $8 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to evaluate an investigational treatment regimen for lymphatic filariasis, a neglected tropical disease.

To Emily Jungheim, MD, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the School of Medicine, family is everything. She helps couples who struggle with infertility.

Dieters sometimes consume extra protein to stave off hunger and prevent loss of muscle tissue that often comes with weight loss. But a School of Medicine study found that eating too much protein eliminates an important health benefit of weight loss: improvement in insulin sensitivity, which is critical to lowering diabetes risk.