School of Medicine

Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis is organizing a Missouri-wide Heart Failure Clinical Research Network, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Cardiology Chief Douglas L. Mann, MD, says this clinical research consortium is one of only nine regional centers across the country investigating innovative treatments for heart failure.

Not all viruses make us sick. But which ones are friends and which ones are foes? Researchers, led by Gregory Storch, MD, at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have received a five-year, $3.3 million grant to study children with weakened immune systems to identify the viruses that make children sick.

Registration is now open for the School of Medicine’s Mini-Medical School, now in its 14th year. These eight-week sessions offer the WUSTL community and the public an opportunity to learn about medicine and surgery from the School of Medicine faculty in a classroom environment.

In one way or another, nearly everyone at Washington University School of Medicine has heard of Bernard Becker, MD. Many use the beautiful Bernard Becker Medical Library or consult rare eye books there from the well-known Becker collection. In the Department of Ophthalmology, which Becker chaired for more than 35 years, faculty members know well his landmark research on glaucoma.

Surgeons at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified tiny fractures and other rib abnormalities in patients treated for a circulatory condition called venous thoracic outlet syndrome. The disorder is often seen in elite athletes who rely on their upper extremities.

“No Boundaries: Women Leaders of Washington University,” an intergenerational discussion group, will be held from 3-4 p.m. on Tuesday, March 6, in Brown Hall Lounge. An RSVP is required by Tuesday, Feb. 28.

The Gephardt Institute for Public Service invites student groups, centers, departments and schools, as well as individual members of the University community, to join an open discussion about plans for the 2012 election year.  The meeting will be held from 4-5:30 p.m. Monday, March 5, in the Multipurpose Room, lower level of Mallinckrodt Center on the Danforth Campus. ​

Lawrence G. Lenke, MD, has been appointed chief of spinal surgery in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. He succeeds Keith H. Bridwell, MD, head of the spine service for the past 28 years.

Disease-causing bacteria’s efforts to resist antibiotics may get help from their distant bacterial relatives that live in the soil, new research by Kevin Forsberg, a graduate student at Washington University School of Medicine suggests. The researchers found identical genes for antibiotic resistance in soil bacteria and in pathogens from clinics around the world.

Randall Bateman, MD, had no intention of becoming a doctor when he enrolled as an undergraduate at Washington University in St. Louis. As a faculty member at the School of Medicine since 2006, Bateman now focuses his research on Alzheimer’s disease.