School of Medicine

Researchers at the School of Medicine have found that a program aimed at helping abused and neglected children and their families is improving outcomes for kids and providing children with stable home environments as their cases move through the courts.

Neurosurgeon Gregory Zipfel, MD, of the School of Medicine, has dedicated his career to treating diseases of the brain and nervous system, particularly abnormalities of the blood vessels leading to and inside the brain. His goal is to make neurosurgeries smaller, less invasive and all-around easier on patients.

A team at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has identified a single gene pathway that is vital for Zika and other flaviviruses to spread infection between cells.

Barry A. Siegel, MD, director of the Division of Nuclear Medicine at Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has received the 2016 National Award of Nuclear Science & History.

New research from the School of Medicine suggests that mothers who eat high-fat, high-sugar diets can predispose multiple generations to metabolic problems, even if their offspring consume healthy diets.

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.