School of Medicine

Some School of Medicine faculty members were appointed with tenure or promoted with tenure at the Board of Trustees meeting Dec. 6. Read more for details.

Your nose is not the only organ in your body that can sense cigarette smoke wafting through the air. Scientists at Washington University in St. Louis have shown that your lungs have odor receptors as well. The odor receptors in your lungs are in the membranes of flask-shaped neuroendocrine cells that dump neurotransmitters and neuropeptides when the receptors are stimulated, perhaps triggering you to cough to rid your body of the offending substance.

Although most smokers realize the habit isn’t good for their hearts and lungs, Washington University orthopaedic surgeon Jeffrey Johnson and other surgeons remind patients that if they need surgery, smoking increases infection rates, makes problems with wound healing more likely and also interferes with bone healing.

Researchers at the School of Medicine and the University of Southern California have found that rates of smoking, drinking and drug use are significantly higher among those who have psychotic disorders than in the general population.

Washington University Medical Center faculty, staff and students will perform their third annual winter concert at 4 p.m. Jan. 18 in the lobby of the Center for Advanced Medicine, 4921 Parkview Place. A reception will follow the concert. The event is free and open to the public.

Elaine Mardis, co-director of The Genome Institute at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, is featured in Discover magazine’s “100 Top Stories of 2013,” for her pioneering work in cancer genomics.

Andrew S. Yoo, PhD, a researcher at the School of Medicine, has received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor given by the U.S. government to independent researchers early in their careers.

Working in mice, School of Medicine researchers report developing a gene delivery method long sought in the field of gene therapy: a deactivated virus carrying a gene of interest that can be injected into the bloodstream and make its way to the right cells. In this proof-of-concept study, they targeted tumor blood vessels in mice without affecting healthy tissues.

Bariatric surgery is effective at helping patients lose weight and improve obesity-related conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure and sleep apnea, according to a review of published studies. Complications are possible following these procedures, but death rates generally are low, according to School of Medicine researchers who performed the analysis.

Steven C. George, MD, PhD, has been named chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, effective July 1, 2014. George is professor of biomedical engineering and of chemical engineering and materials science at the University of California, Irvine. In addition, he is the Edwards Lifesciences Professor and director of the Edwards Lifesciences Center for Advanced Cardiovascular Technology.