School of Medicine

Growing up in the picturesque town of Sandomierz in southeastern Poland, Lilianna Solnica-Krezel, PhD, was a serious student and an uncommonly avid reader. Today, Solnica-Krezel, professor and head of the Department of Developmental Biology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, is a leading expert in understanding the earliest stages of life’s development. 

Students in the Program in Occupational Therapy worked with drivers from the community during the CarFit event March 31 at the School of Medicine. Drivers who came to the event were evaluated by Washington University occupational therapy students to ensure the vehicles were properly adjusted for the driver.

Artwork created by Washington University employees’ children will be on display from April 12-25 in the Farrell Learning and Teaching Center Atrium. The creations were part of a contest offered to children in kindergarten through high school to raise awareness among university families of hte importance of sustainable living.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that problems with a digestive process in cells can clog arteries. The finding could provide a target for future therapies aimed at preventing or reversing atherosclerosis.

Adding ultrasound exams to annual breast cancer screening can detect more cancers in women who have dense breasts and are at a higher risk of breast cancer, according to a three-year, multi-center trial appearing this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association. But the scans carry risks that may outweigh their benefits.

Working in mice, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have devised a treatment that prevents the optic nerve injury that occurs in glaucoma, a neurodegenerative disease that is a leading cause of blindness. Researchers increased the resistance of optic nerve cells to damage by repeatedly exposing the mice to low levels of oxygen similar to those found at high altitudes.

For Lewis Wall, MD, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, a dream has come true. For almost 20 years, he worked doggedly to build a hospital in one of the world’s poorest countries to treat women with a devastating childbirth injury. His dream became reality in February, when a 42-bed hospital opened in Niger, Africa. The facility is dedicated to repairing fistulas, wounds inflicted by prolonged labor, which leaves women — and often girls — steadily leaking wastes.

Washington University biomedical engineer Lihong Wang, PhD, will explain his photoacoustic tomography technology April 3 at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Chicago.

The Academy of Science of St. Louis will honor 10 faculty members from Washington University in St. Louis for their contributions and leadership in science and medicine. The Outstanding St. Louis Scientists Awards will be presented Thursday, April 19, at the Chase Park Plaza Hotel. The awards are designed to focus attention on St. Louis individuals and institutions known around the world for scientific contributions to research, industry and quality of life.

At recent Board of Trustees meetings, the following faculty members were appointed with tenure, promoted with tenure or granted tenure effective July 1, 2012, unless otherwise noted.