School of Medicine

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.

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.

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.

The School of Medicine’s 9th Annual Art Show opens Jan. 22 and runs through Feb. 17 at the Farrell Learning and Teaching Center atrium.

Bradley L. Schlaggar, MD, PhD, the A. Ernest and Jane G. Stein Professor of Neurology at Washington University School of Medicine, has been awarded the E. Mead Johnson Award for Pediatric Research. The award is among the most prestigious in pediatric research.​

Estrogen levels drop dramatically in menopause, a time when the risk of urinary tract infections increases significantly. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found new evidence in mice that the two phenomena are connected by more than just timing.

A road- and bridge-construction project that will impact Washington University, and particularly the medical center, is scheduled to begin in the next few days. The project is expected to completed by summer 2014.

Nominations are being accepted for Washington University’s annual Faculty Achievement Awards, known as the Arthur Holly Compton Faculty Achievement Award and the Carl and Gerty Cori Faculty Achievement Award. The Compton Award is given to a distinguished member of the faculty from one of the six Danforth Campus schools and the Cori Award to a faculty member from the School of Medicine.The deadline to submit nominations is Friday, Feb. 15.