School of Medicine

Members of the Washington University School of Medicine community are welcome to join one of two longstanding Weight Watchers meetings on the Medical Campus.

Humans have known for centuries that copper is a potent weapon against infection. New research shows that the bacteria that cause serious urinary tract infections “know” this, too, and steal copper to prevent the metal from being used against them. Blocking this thievery with a drug may significantly improve patients’ chances of fighting off infections, according to researchers.

A blood test can predict whether patients are likely to die of a heart attack in the month after surgery, according to an international study involving thousands of patients.

Researchers led by Michael H. Tomasson, MD, at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown how an aggressive form of multiple myeloma resists chemotherapy. Multiple myeloma is a rare cancer of plasma cells in the bone marrow. Though the finding has no immediate benefit for patients, the scientists say it could help guide research into better treatments.

Victor Davila-Roman, MD, professor of medicine; and Yeshey Penjose, MD, a cardiologist from the National Referral Hospital in Thimpu, Bhutan, study a sonogram of a heart at the Center for Advanced Medicine. Penjose was training in echocardiography at the School of Medicine for two months as part of the Global Health Scholars Program.

Miday, an instructor of medicine in the hospitalist service, died unexpectedly Friday June 21, 2012. He was 29.

A protein required to regrow injured peripheral nerves has been identified by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The finding, in mice, has implications for improving recovery after nerve injury in the extremities. It also opens new avenues of investigation toward triggering nerve regeneration in the central nervous system, notorious for its inability to heal.

Researchers studying the genetic roots of the most common malignant childhood brain tumor have discovered missteps in three of the four subtypes of the cancer involving genes that are already being targeted for drug development.

Randall Bateman, MD, has been named the Charles F. and Joanne Knight Distinguished Professor in Neurology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

David H. Gutmann, MD, PhD, a neurofibromatosis expert at the Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has received the 2012 Friedrich von Recklinghausen Award.