Gene influences success of nicotine replacement therapy in smokers
A gene that controls how quickly smokers process nicotine also predicts whether people who try to kick the habit are likely to respond to nicotine replacement therapy, according to new research from an investigator at the School of Medicine.
Genetic errors identified in 12 major cancer types
By analyzing the DNA in more than 3,000 tumors, scientists led by Li Ding, PhD, at The Genome Institute have identified 127 repeatedly mutated genes that likely drive the growth of a range of cancers in the body. The discovery sets the stage for devising new diagnostic tools and more personalized cancer treatments.
Understanding the Affordable Care Act: Gruber explains health-care reform (video)
WUSTL students, faculty and physicians and members of the community packed Brown Hall on Friday evening, Oct. 4, to hear Jonathan Gruber, one of the foremost authorities on the Affordable Care Act.
Scientists unravel mechanisms in chronic itching
New research at the School of Medicine shows that chronic itching, which can occur in many medical conditions, is different from the urge to scratch a mosquito bite. Chronic itching appears to incorporate more than just the nerve cells that normally transmit itch signals. In the image shown, researchers identified elevated signaling (in red) in nerve cells involved in both itch and in pain.
Ratts named associate dean for medical admissions
Valerie S. Ratts, MD, has been named the new associate dean for admissions at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, effective Jan. 1.
Database of disease genes shows potential drug therapies
Twin brothers Obi and Malachi Griffith and their colleagues at The Genome Institute have created a massive online database that matches thousands of genes linked to cancer and other diseases with drugs that target those genes.
Remembering Rita Levi-Montalcini
Members of the
Washington University in St. Louis community will gather at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 15, in the Ginkgo
Room of Olin Library to remember Rita Levi-Montalcini, one of two women
from the university who won the Nobel Prize. The event, which is hosted
by the Woman’s Club of Washington University, is free and open to the
public.
Stomach cells naturally revert to stem cells
Scientists from the School of Medicine and in the Netherlands have found that a class of specialized cells in the stomach reverts to stem cells more often than researchers had thought. One or more chief cells, which normally make digestive juices in the stomach, have changed into a stem cell in the image shown.
Fariba Nawa will serve as tour guide to two Assembly Series programs on Afghanistan
Afghan-American journalist and Opium Nation author Fariba Nawa will participate in two Washington University in St. Louis programs exploring the current and future state of Afghanistan: She will give an Assembly Series talk, “Afghanistan, Heroin and Women,” at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 16, in Umrath Lounge; and she will lead a panel discussion, “Aftershocks of the Afghanistan War: What’s Next for Those Who Left and for Those Left Behind,” at 2 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 17, in Mallinckrodt Center’s Multipurpose Room. Both are free and open to the public. Nawa was born in Afghanistan but later moved to California. She returned after the U.S.-led fight began against the Taliban and al-Qaida in that country, and in 2011 wrote a book about the addictions, violence and other tragedies borne of Afghanistan’s opiate industry.
Public health conference to address obesity
The obesity epidemic and how science may be able to impact it is the focus of the upcoming annual conference of the Institute for Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis. Graham Colditz, MD, DrPH, deputy director of the Institute for Public Health and a disease prevention expert at Siteman Cancer Center, will deliver the keynote address.
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