School of Medicine

Working in mice, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis led by Brian N. Finck, PhD (left), and Kyle S. McCommis, PhD, showed they could reduce glucose production in the liver and lower blood sugar levels. Their approach — shutting down a liver protein involved in making glucose — may help treat type 2 diabetes.

A free e-book by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine provides practical, science-based advice for lowering breast cancer risk at every stage of life. “Together — Every Woman’s Guide to Preventing Breast Cancer” is written for a lay audience to help women improve their breast health and the breast health of their loved ones.

Katie Plax, MD, who is recognized widely for an innovative youth outreach center she started and for her work advocating for children and teens, has been named the Ferring Family Chair in Pediatrics at St. Louis Children’s Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

New research may help explain why drug treatments for addiction and depression don’t work for some patients. The conditions are linked to reward and aversion responses in the brain. And the research suggests that some treatments simultaneously stimulate reward and aversion responses, resulting in a net zero effect.

The largest study to date of sustained calorie reduction in adults shows that it does not produce all of the metabolic effects associated with longevity that have been found in animal studies. Severely cutting calorie intake, however, did appear to lower the risk of cardiovascular disease and make people more sensitive to insulin, according to John O. Holloszy, MD, principal investigator at the study’s Washington University clinical site.

Following a weeklong orientation that focused on health disparities and public health, first-year students at the School of Medicine got their hands dirty working at urban gardens in St. Louis. The students volunteered with a nonprofit organization that works to establish and sustain green spaces in neighborhoods across the city.

Compared with routine medical care, probiotics administered to critically ill patients in intensive care units showed no benefit in preventing the colonization of drug-resistant microbes in the intestinal tract, according to new research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Ralph G. Dacey Jr., MD, the Henry G. and Edith R. Schwartz Professor and head of the Department of Neurological Surgery, has received the Walter Reed Distinguished Service Award from his alma mater.

​As the use of e-cigarettes has risen dramatically in the United States in recent years, so have calls to poison centers about them. Yet many parents who use e-cigarettes – or “vape” – aren’t aware of the dangers to children, according to a study at the School of Medicine.

For patients with an often-deadly form of leukemia, new research by Timothy J. Ley, MD, and colleagues suggests that lingering cancer-related mutations – detected after initial treatment with chemotherapy – are associated with an increased risk of relapse and poor survival.