School of Medicine

Luis A. Sanchez, MD, has been named the inaugural Gregorio A. Sicard Distinguished Professor of Vascular Surgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Sanchez, the recently named chief of the section of vascular surgery at the School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital, is highly regarded for his expertise in vascular and endovascular surgery.

Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis asthma specialist Mario Castro, MD, is seeking volunteers for a study investigating whether taking vitamin D can make asthma medication more effective. Study participants must be 18 or older and have a physician’s diagnosis of asthma. They also must have been taking some type of therapy to control their asthma for at least one year.

Artery-opening brain stents designed to reduce high risk of repeat strokes instead significantly increased strokes and deaths, results of a multi-center clinical trial show.

Lisa M. Moscoso, MD, PhD, has been named associate dean for student affairs at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Washington University’s American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grant (ACS-IRG) is now accepting applications from junior faculty for pilot project awards through 4 p.m. Oct. 14.

A quick glance through history books and today’s news headlines seems to support the idea that humans by nature are aggressive, selfish and antagonistic. But this view simply doesn’t fit with scientific facts, write researchers featured in the new book Origins of Altruism and Cooperation, edited by WUSTL professors Robert W. Sussman, PhD, and C. Robert Cloninger, MD. The book’s authors argue that humans are naturally cooperative, altruistic and social, only reverting to violence when stressed, abused, neglected or mentally ill.

Just one second, one heartbeat. That’s what is needed for a new, noninvasive functional imaging technology, developed by a Washington University in St. Louis scientist, to record data for locating the source in the heart of a dangerous cardiac arrhythmia called ventricular tachycardia (VT). WUSTL researchers in biomedical engineering and medicine report in the Aug. 31, 2011, issue of Science Translational Medicine, that the technique would far more quickly find the source and type of VT, saving hours of mapping.  

Two leading members of the faculty at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have been named Alan A. and Edith L. Wolff Professors in their respective fields. Raphael Kopan, PhD, has been named the Wolff Professor of Developmental Biology, and David Sibley, PhD, has been named the Wolff Professor of Molecular Microbiology.

Seasonal flu vaccines will be offered to School of Medicine faculty and staff at no cost beginning Oct. 4. The School of Medicine strongly recommends that all employees, even those with no direct patient contact, get a vaccine.

This summer, 18-year-old Mogboluwaga Oginni shadowed physicians as they repaired shattered hips, twisted ankles and dislocated shoulders. He also learned about patient billing and the steps to cast broken legs.