School of Medicine

School of Medicine researchers have identified a chain reaction that triggers the regrowth of some damaged nerve cell branches, a discovery that one day may help improve treatments for nerve injuries that can cause loss of sensation or paralysis. To study how nerve cells respond to injuries in their branches, researcher Valeria Cavalli grows them in “spots,” like the one pictured.

Lee Ratner, MD, PhD, has been named the Alan A. and Edith L. Wolff Professor of Oncology at the School of Medicine. Shown here with Larry J. Shapiro, MD, dean of the School of Medicine, Ratner (right) is an oncologist and noted authority on retroviruses.

A groundbreaking multidisciplinary study on African-American health in St. Louis, ‘For the Sake of All,’ releases its fourth brief. This one examines the long-term effects of how segregation affects access to health-promoting resources and health outcomes such as chronic disease and death.

Two decades of research by Rumi Kato Price, PhD, a professor of psychiatry at the Washington University School of Medicine, shows reason for optimism about the future of returning soldiers. “The notion that our soldiers deployed to conflict regions come back ‘broken’ is a one-sided story in the media,” says Price, whose research has explored trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse and suicide among American military service members and veterans.

Friends and family of Bernard Becker, MD, will gather for a memorial Friday, Nov. 22. Becker, professor emeritus of ophthalmology and visual sciences, died at his home Aug. 28, 2013, at the age of 93.

Washington University has received a $1.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to foster student diversity in its PhD training program in the biomedical sciences. Pictured are inaugural scholars from the program.

Washington University’s Bear Cub Fund supports innovative translational research to help investigators demonstrate the commercial potential of their technologies. Grant applications are due Nov. 30.

The School of Medicine and its Department of Pediatrics have established funding for three pediatric scholars named in honor of a trio of highly regarded former pediatricians at the university. The new Scholars in Pediatrics are Paul Hruz, MD, PhD, Shalini Shenoy, MD, and Andrew White, MD.

Researchers at the School of Medicine are studying the quality, effectiveness and safety of generic drugs used to treat depression. The research, supported by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, is the only study of its kind in the nation. Pictured is the study’s principal investigator, Evan D. Kharasch, MD, PhD.

A town hall meeting Wednesday, Nov. 6, at the School of Medicine will address employment needs of the autism community.