School of Medicine

James Fleshman, MD, is a highly regarded surgeon known for developing laparoscopic techniques for colorectal surgery. In a landmark clinical trial, his research helped to establish that laparoscopic surgery is as safe and effective as conventional surgery for removing colon tumors.

Washington University’s Genome Institute has received a $114 million grant to continue its groundbreaking genomic research. The four-year grant comes from the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The university’s Genome Institute is one of only three large federally funded genome centers in the United States.

Faculty Achievement Award winners Wayne M. Yokoyama, MD, and Erik Trinkaus, PhD, listen before the award ceremony Dec. 3 at Simon Hall. The ceremony also honored Chancellor’s Award for Innovation and Entrepreneurship winners Jonathan S. Turner, PhD, and Jerome R. Cox Jr., ScD. The recognition ceremony was followed by the annual Chancellor’s Gala at the Danforth University Center.

Graham Colditz, MD, DrPH, a disease prevention expert at the Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University in St. Louis has received the Medal of Honor for cancer control research from the American Cancer Society.

Employees at Washington University Medical Center are invited to view a gallery of presentation boards, models and other materials created by three design teams for the campus renewal process. The gallery is now open on the second floor of the BJC Institute of Health at Washington University School of Medicine. Employees may visit the gallery from 7-9 a.m. Tuesdays, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Wednesdays or 2-4 p.m. Thursdays through Dec. 22.

For the first time, Anesthesiology, the premier journal in the field of anesthesiology, focuses entirely on the physicians, scientists and research conducted in a single, U.S. institution. The December issue of the journal features the work of the Department of Anesthesiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Nancy Morrow-Howell, PhD, the Ralph and Muriel Pumphrey Professor of Social Work at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, is the new director of the Harvey A. Friedman Center for Aging effective Jan. 1, announced Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton. Morrow-Howell succeeds John C. Morris, MD, the Harvey A. and Dorismae Hacker Friedman Distinguished Professor of Neurology and director of the Alzheimer Disease Research Center, the Memory and Aging Project and the Memory Diagnostic Center at WUSTL. 

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, including Michael Holtzman, MD, have received an $8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study the role of the barrier functions of the skin, gut, and airway in asthma and allergic diseases. Understanding the role of the epithelial cells in these tissues may help prevent and treat respiratory illnesses in the future, the researchers say.

The following are among the new faculty members at Washington University: Joseph Cullen, PhD; Amr Farahat, PhD; Exequiel Hernández, PhD; Baojun Jiang, PhD; Ping C. Lieser, PhD; Asaf Manela, PhD; Matthew Ringgenberg, PhD; and Adina Sterling, PhD. Others will be introduced periodically.

A drug commonly used to treat seizures appears to make eye tumors less likely to grow if they spread to other parts of the body, according to new research at the School of Medicine. Their findings are available online in the journal Clinical Cancer Research.