School of Medicine

Fumihiko Urano, MD, PhD, has been named the new Samuel E. Schechter Professor of Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Shown (from left) are Larry J. Shapiro, MD; Urano; and Victoria J. Fraser, MD.

Researchers have found that seeing well as we age depends, at least in part, on a recycling process in the eye that mops up cellular debris and recycles light-sensitive proteins. The findings suggest that disruptions in that process may harm vision and play a key role in the development of eye diseases related to aging. Inside the retinal pigment epithelium cells pictured are structures used for recycling (green) that engulf and digest spent parts of photoreceptor cells (red).

On Aug. 12, a northbound lane on Kingshighway Boulevard and the adjoining sidewalk north of Children’s Place will close in preparation for demolition related to revitalization of Washington University Medical Center’s north campus. At the same time, barriers will go up around the former Jewish College of Nursing and the Kingshighway, Yalem and Steinberg buildings — all of which will come down as part of the first phase of the Campus Renewal Project.

Researchers have shown they can distinguish between viral and bacterial infections in children with fever by profiling the activity of genes in a blood sample.

Washington University School of Medicine again is sponsoring its annual school supply drive to benefit Adams Elementary School students. The school supply drive runs from July 15-Aug. 7. A list of suggested items is below.

Scientists have created a virtual model of the brain that daydreams like humans do. They hope the model will help them understand why certain portions of the brain work together when a person daydreams or is mentally idle. Shown is the study’s senior author, Maurizio Corbetta, MD.

Researchers at the School of Medicine want to know whether they can reduce the rate of unintended pregnancies at community clinics by providing  contraceptive counseling that emphasizes the benefits of long-acting birth control, like IUDs and implants, and by making these methods available to women at sharply reduced costs or free of charge. Pictured is Tessa Madden, MD, the study’s principal investigator.

Thanks to a grant from the St. Louis-based Edward Mallinckrodt Jr. Foundation, 21 physician scientist trainees in two clinical departments at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis will receive research support. Pictured is Oliver Langenberg, who led the foundation for more than 50 years before his death last year and after whom the physician scientist training programs in the departments of Medicine and Pediatrics have been renamed.

Ronald Evens, MD, professor of radiology at the School of Medicine and of medical economics at the Olin Business School, has been appointed chairman of the Board of Regents for the National Library of Medicine.

Marco Colonna, MD, has been named the Robert Rock Belliveau, MD, Professor of Pathology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Shown (from left) are Colonna; Belliveau’s wife, Rita Deanin Abbey; and Belliveau.