School of Medicine

Severely malnourished children are far more likely to recover and survive when given antibiotics along with a therapeutic peanut-butter based food than children who are treated with the therapeutic food alone, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found. Indi Trehan, MD, the study’s lead author, shows parents in Malawi how to measure medication.

A study of young twins in Malawi, in sub-Saharan Africa, finds that bacteria living in the intestine are an underlying cause of a form of severe acute childhood malnutrition.

Todd H. Wasserman, MD, professor emeritus of radiation oncology at the School of Medicine, died Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2013, after a long illness. Wasserman, 66, made important contributions to the field of radiation oncology.

Several of the School of Medicine’s musically talented students, faculty and staff recently performed their second annual winter concert in the lobby of the Center for Advanced Medicine. Shown are laboratory technician Rowan Karvas on clarinet and graduate student Mo Lee on piano in a performance of Paul Jeanjean’s “Arabesques.”

Steven Cheng, MD, and Will Ross, MD, have received the 2012 Samuel R. Goldstein Leadership Awards in Medical Student Education.

Doctors may one day treat some forms of blindness by altering the genetic program of the light-sensing cells of the eye, according to School of Medicine scientists. Working in mice with a disease that causes gradual blindness, the researchers reprogrammed the cells in the eye that enable night vision.

The Longer Life Foundation, a joint enterprise of the School of Medicine and the Reinsurance Group of America, is seeking applications for funding in 2013.

Michael Lane, MD, has been named patient safety officer for the Department of Medicine. The position is new for the department, and in the role, Lane will oversee and coordinate safety efforts to help improve health-care outcomes.

Mario Castro, MD, and Angela Brown, MD, will lead a new office in the Department of Medicine that supports faculty members’ career development. The new program will feature workshops and seminars to promote faculty career development in the areas of research, clinical care, education and leadership.

Todd H. Wasserman, MD, professor emeritus of radiation oncology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, died Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2013, after a prolonged illness. He was 66. An obituary will appear in an upcoming issue of the Record.