School of Medicine

Lisa Jones (right) talks with Guillermina Lozano, PhD, from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center after the Minority Research Scholars Symposium April 20 at the Farrell Learning and Teaching Center. The symposium was sponsored by the Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences Diversity Programs Office.

Two new studies in the Journal of the American Medical Association by Washington University researchers including Timothy Ley, MD, and Richard Wilson, PhD, highlight the power of sequencing cancer patients’ genomes as a diagnostic tool, helping doctors decide the best course of treatment and researchers identify new cancer susceptibility mutations that can be passed from parent to child.

Despite promising findings in the laboratory, Dominic N. Reeds, MD, and other nutrition researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that ginseng does not improve insulin sensitivity in diabetics who are overweight.

Ken Yamaguchi, MD, the Sam and Marilyn Fox Distinguished Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, fixes shoulders and elbows. Although many think of rotator cuff tears affecting athletes, almost 50 percent of people over age 70 have rotator cuff tears, either with or without pain.

A group of adults meets regularly in a room at the Center for Advanced Medicine at Washington University Medical Center to learn how to shade with charcoals, master watercolor strokes, and mold and shape clay. These students may be rediscovering art after many years or learning techniques for the first time. But they also share another common bond — battling cancer.

Washington University has the only Emergency Medical Services (EMS) program in Missouri that routinely sends emergency medicine physicians along with its own ambulances to treat trauma patients at disaster scenes.

Since the 1940s, Washington University psychiatrists have played a key role in the evolution of the field’s premiere diagnostic manual and other research. Today, the Department of Psychiatry has ambitious plans on the horizon.

The Washington University Bouchet Honor Society Selection Committee chose its fifth class of Bouchet Fellows. The 2011 Bouchet Fellows are Pascale Guiton, a doctoral student in the Molecular Microbiology and Microbial Pathogenesis Program in the Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences, and Natecia Williams, a doctoral student in the Neuroscience Program in the Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences.

Larry J. Shapiro, MD, gets outfitted with a T-shirt supporting Japanese earthquake relief from Shin-ichiro Imai, MD, PhD, April 6 in the Shell Lobby. Members of the Japanese Happy Hour, a scientific study group of Japanese researchers organized the sale, which is designating 100 percent of proceeds to relief organizations including the Japanese Red Cross.

Ireland native Maria Bernadette Majella Doyle, MD, assistant professor of surgery at the School of Medicine and a member of the Barnes-Jewish Hospital organ transplantation team, will present the annual Women’s Society Adele Starbird Lecture at 11 a.m. Wednesday, April 13, in Graham Chapel. Doyle’s talk, part of the Assembly Series, will provide insight into the life of a transplantation surgeon. It is free and open to the public.