School of Medicine

Julia Warren and colleagues at the School of Medicine have developed an approach to creating treatments for osteoporosis and autoimmune diseases that may avoid the risk of infection and cancer posed by some current medications. Warren is pictured with her mentor and co-author, Steven Teitelbaum, MD.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that although a gene variant can prevent some young drinkers from developing alcohol problems, the gene’s protective effects can vanish in the presence of other teens who drink.

A cancer odyssey​ Inspired by his childhood physicians, Ramaswamy Govindan, MD, knew at a young age what he wanted to become. Along the way, he has journeyed from his native India to the U.S. and helped to navigate the frontiers of cancer care.

The nip in the air is a reminder not only of the coming autumn but of flu season. And for any Washington University employee who works with or near patients, it means it’s time to get a flu shot.

The intersection of Duncan and Boyle avenues closed Sept. 15 for the Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD) project to upgrade the Duncan Avenue storm sewer. The closure has resulted in a number of employees using the CORTEX parking lot as a detour, even though the lot has not been designated as one. Employees are encouraged to use Newstead or Taylor avenues instead of Boyle Avenue and the CORTEX lot to access parking garages and lots.

Jeffrey I. Gordon, MD, has won the 2014 Dickson Prize in Medicine for his pioneering studies demonstrating how the tens of trillions of microbes that live in the gut influence human health.

Joni Westerhouse, a longtime veteran in public affairs at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been named associate vice chancellor and associate dean for Medical Public Affairs.

Ross C. Brownson, PhD, professor at the Brown School and at the School of Medicine, has been awarded a $365,600 grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute for his project “A Cross-country Comparison of Evidence-based Prevention of Cancer.”

The most common type of hospital-associated infection may be preventable with a vaccine, new research in mice suggests. The experimental vaccine, created by School of Medicine researchers, prevented urinary tract infections associated with catheters, the tubes that hospitals and other care facilities insert to drain urine from the bladder.

Kelli VanDussen, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher in the (Thaddeus) Stappenbeck Lab, has received a three-year, $174,750 grant from the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America for research titled “Defining The Basis of Epithelial Defects in Crohn’s Disease Patients.”