School of Medicine

West Nile virus expert Michael Diamond discusses the potentially record-setting 2012 West Nile virus infection season and describes ways to reduce chances of infection.

The most comprehensive analysis yet of breast tumors shows that one of the most deadly subtypes shares many genetic features with similarly lethal ovarian tumors.

It’s common for School of Medicine employees to work here for 20 or more years. But it’s less common to meet an employee who has been here since she was 15 years old. That employee is Rhonda Matt, director of research and business operations for the Department of Pediatrics.

New research suggests that a key immune cell may play a role in lung cancer susceptibility. Working in mice, Alexander Krupnick, MD, and colleagues found evidence that the genetic diversity in natural killer cells, which typically seek out and destroy tumor cells, contributes to whether or not the animals develop lung cancer.

Marilyn Gibbons, a lab technician at The Genome Institute, died of cancer Aug. 3, 2012. She was 51.

For some women facing fertility issues, a faster way of freezing and storing eggs is expanding their reproductive options. This new technology has improved viability of frozen eggs.

Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have taken one of the first detailed looks into how Alzheimer’s disease disrupts coordination among several of the brain’s networks.

The Institute for Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis will host its fifth annual conference, titled “Rising to the Challenge: Public Health in the 21st Century,” from 12:30-5 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 9, at the Eric P. Newman Education Center on the Medical Campus. The keynote speaker is James S. Marks, MD, senior vice president and director, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The rare disorder Wolfram syndrome is caused by mutations in a single gene, but its effects on the body are far reaching. Now, researchers report that they have identified a mechanism that affects both insulin-secreting cells and neurons. The finding will aid in the understanding of Wolfram syndrome and also may be important in the treatment of milder forms of diabetes and other disorders.

Lung cancer patients with a history of smoking have ten times more genetic mutations in their tumors than those with the disease who have never smoked, according to Richard K. Wilson, PhD, and his colleagues at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.