School of Medicine

Marcus E. Raichle, MD, has been named an inaugural Alan A. and Edith L. Wolff Distinguished Professor of Medicine at the School of Medicine. A professor of radiology, psychology, biomedical engineering, neurobiology and neurology, his many honors include the 2014 Kavli Prize for Neuroscience.

Guided by the immune system, researchers have identified types of gut bacteria in both healthy and undernourished children in Malawi that are linked to nutritional health and that have diagnostic and therapeutic implications for childhood undernutrition.

Andrey Shaw, MD, the Emil R. Unanue Professor of Immunobiology in the Department of Pathology and Immunology and director of the Division of Immunobiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has received a one-year, $84,583 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Confluence Life Sciences Inc. for research titled “Development of TAK1 Inhibitors to Treat Pancreatic Cancer.”

Studying zebrafish embryos, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown that the epigenome plays a significant part in guiding development in the first 24 hours after fertilization. The research may deepen understanding of congenital defects and miscarriage.

​Applications for the Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) in Leukemia Career Enhancement and Developmental Research Awards are being accepted through May 1.

An investigational drug appears to cut the risk of severe asthma attacks in half for patients who have difficulty controlling the disorder with standard medications, according to results from two multicenter clinical trials headed by Mario Castro, MD, the Alan A. and Edith L. Wolff Professor of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the School of Medicine.

The next round of spring Assembly Series programs at Washington University in St. Louis will cover a variety of topics, from how society talks about contagious diseases to delving into major philosophical theory to the possibility of cloning a mammoth.

School of Medicine faculty members were honored with Distinguished Faculty Awards on Wednesday, Feb. 18, for their dedication, talent and wide-ranging achievements. Shown is D. Katherine Grange, MD, who was given a Distinguished Clinician Award, and Larry J. Shapiro, MD, executive vice chancellor for medical affairs and dean of the medical school.

A new study at the School of Medicine is focused on understanding how the pathways identified by the Human Connectome Project differ in people with psychiatric illnesses. Principal investigator Daniel Mamah, MD, said the group’s goal is to look at diagnosing psychiatric illness in a different way.

Ching-Cheng (Stanley) Huang, PhD, a postdoctoral research scholar in the laboratory of Edward J. Pearce, PhD, professor of pathology and immunology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has received a two-year, $98,476 grant from the American Heart Association for research titled “Role of Lipid Droplet Lipolysis in Alternative Macrophage Activation.”