School of Medicine

Sleep disruptions may be among the earliest indicators of the start of Alzheimer’s disease, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis report this week in Science Translational Medicine. David M. Holtzman, MD, the Andrew B. and Gretchen P. Jones Professor and head of the Department of Neurology, is the study’s author.

Cancer is the second leading cause of death among children ages 1-14 and will affect over 12,000 families in the United States this year alone. To increase awareness, September is designated Childhood Cancer Awareness Month with Wednesday, Sept. 12, pegged as Childhood Cancer Awareness Day. WUSTL researchers Kimberly J. Johnson, PhD, assistant professor at the Brown School and Todd Druley , MD, PhD, pediatric oncologist and assistant professor of pediatrics at the School of Medicine, are working to alleviate childhood cancer.

Children who use inhaled steroid drugs for asthma end up slightly shorter at their full adult height than children who don’t use the drugs, new results from a comprehensive asthma study show. The study’s senior author is Robert C. Strunk, MD, the Donald Strominger Professor of Pediatrics.

Barak A. Cohen, PhD, and Robi D. Mitra, PhD, have been named Alvin Goldfarb Distinguished Professors of Computational Biology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Soil bacteria and bacteria that cause human diseases have recently swapped at least seven antibiotic-resistance genes, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine report on Aug. 31 in Science.

William Chapman has been named as the Eugene Bricker Chair of Surgery at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Victoria J. Fraser, MD, has been named head of the Department of Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Oluwadamilola “Lola” Fayanju, MD, MPHS, a clinical research fellow at the Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine, has been named one of 16 recipients of the 2012 Breast Cancer Symposium Merit Award.

Washington University physicians at Barnes-Jewish Hospital are the first in Missouri to offer a new type of PET scan for patients being evaluated for Alzheimer’s disease. The test detects neuritic plaques, a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease.

When the body makes immune T cells, it relies on a molecular channel more commonly seen in nerves and heart muscles to ensure that the powerful T cells have the right mixture of aggressiveness and restraint, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have discovered.