School of Medicine

A new tool kit for dissemination and implementation, developed by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute in Washington, D.C., prominently features the work of several university faculty members, including the groundbreaking 2012 book, “Dissemination and Implementation Research in Health: Translating Science to Practice.”

Analyzing every marijuana-related Twitter message sent during a one-month period in early 2014, researchers at the School of Medicine have found that the “Twitterverse” is a pot-friendly place. In that time, more than 7 million tweets referenced marijuana, with 15 times as many pro-pot tweets sent as anti-pot tweets.

Herbert W. Virgin IV, MD, PhD, the Edward Mallinckrodt Professor of Pathology and Immunology and head of the Department of Pathology and Immunology, has received several multiyear grants.

Inflammatory bowel diseases are associated with a decrease in the diversity of bacteria in the gut, but a new study led by researchers at the School of Medicine has linked these same illnesses to an increase in the diversity of viruses.

Using Washington University’s state-of-the-art zebrafish facility, scientists have identified a gene that helps regulate how well nerves of the central nervous system are insulated. The finding may have implications for human diseases such as multiple sclerosis, in which this insulation is lost.

At last month’s Board of Trustees meeting, several Washington University in St. Louis faculty members from the School of Medicine were promoted with tenure.

School of Medicine employees are invited to visit the annual Health Happening Fair from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, Jan. 30, in the Eric P. Newman Education Center for free health screenings and information on a wide variety of health topics.

The School of Medicine’s 11th Annual Art Show is underway in the Farrell Learning and Teaching Center atrium, 520 S. Euclid Ave. Visitors may view the art through Feb. 11.

Samuel Achilefu, PhD, of the School of Medicine has won the St. Louis Award for 2014 for his work in creating cancer-visualizing glasses, which were used in surgeries for first time last year. He is the 87th person honored with the annual award since it was established in 1931.

Scientists, led in part by Washington University’s Vitaly Klyachko, PhD, have gained new insight into fragile X syndrome — the most common cause of inherited intellectual disability — by studying the case of a person without the disorder, but with two of its classic symptoms.