School of Medicine

H. James Wedner, MD, (left) has been installed as the Dr. Phillip and Arleen Korenblat Professor at the School of Medicine, where he serves as chief of the division of allergy and clinical immunology. The named professorship, a gift from Jess and Alice Yawitz, honors their longtime friend and physician, Dr. Phillip E. Korenblat, and his wife, Arleen.

This year’s Washington University Global Health Week has something for everyone. The public can watch Ethiopian dancers, listen to the melodies of Argentina and attend a lecture by the former president and health minister of Ecuador. Attendees also can buy ethnic food, shop for artisan crafts and ask Global Health Scholars, medical students and undergraduates about their outreach efforts.

The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research (OVCR) has announced the six winners of the 2013 University Research Strategic Alliance (URSA) grants. URSA grants provide one-year, $25,000 seed funding to full-time WUSTL faculty members. The URSA program aims to encourage researchers to collaborate across disciplines and schools.

Scientists at The Genome Institute at Washington University School of Medicine helped lead an international team of researchers who have identified a genetic mutation linked to age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of blindness in Americans over age 50. Shown is an eye with signs of macular degeneration.

Carey-Ann Burnham, PhD, assistant professor of pathology and immunology and of pediatrics, has been awarded the American Society for Microbiology/Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics Young Investigator Award.

The surface parking lot on the Medical Center campus at the corner of Taylor and Parkview avenues (C-lot) will close permanently at 5 p.m. Friday, Sept. 27.

Applications for the K12 Clinical Hematology Research Career Development Program scholars are being accepted through Oct. 21.

Washington University faculty and administrators with ideas for improving the campus environment for women, members of underrepresented minority groups, and other diverse groups are encouraged to apply for a Diversity and Inclusion Grant. The deadline is Oct. 29. Professor Gerald Early (right) speaks at a discussion on the “Delmar Divide,” one of the winning Diversity and Inclusion Grant proposals last year.

The mix of microbes living inside the gut can protect against obesity, but a healthy diet is critical, according to School of Medicine scientists who transplanted intestinal microbes from obese and lean twins into mice and fed the animals different diets. Pictured are researchers Vanessa Ridaura, a graduate student, and Jeffrey I. Gordon, MD, director of the Center for Genome Sciences and Systems Biology.

By passing surgical instruments through a patient’s mouth, School of Medicine doctors have corrected a problem that prevented a woman from easily swallowing food and liquids. The operation is one of the first of its kind in the region performed through a natural opening in the body rather than an incision. Pictured is the surgical knife (blue) in the esophagus.