School of Medicine

Three faculty recently received grants from the Children’s Discovery Institute to advance their research into childhood diseases.

Dorothy T. Rinderer, an administrative assistant for 40 years in the Dean’s Office at the School of Medicine, died Sunday, Jan. 2, 2011, at Mary Queen and Mother Center in Shrewsbury, Mo. She was 88.

Scientists, including Gerald W. Dorn, MD, have identified the first DNA sequence variant common in the population that is not only associated with an increased risk of heart failure, but appears to play a role in causing it.

For someone who grew up on the East Coast and spent much of his career on the West Coast, George Van Hare, MD, certainly seems at home in the Midwest.

Peter M.J. Burgers, PhD, has been named the Marvin A. Brennecke Professor of Biological Chemistry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

“The Past is Alive … The Work is Not Yet Done” is the theme of Washington University in St. Louis’ 24th annual celebration honoring Martin Luther King Jr. at 7 p.m. Monday, Jan. 17, in Graham Chapel on the Danforth Campus. Events will aslo take place at the School of Medicine, the Brown School and the School of Law.

Three Washington University faculty — two from the School of Medicine and one from Arts & Sciences — have been named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general scientific society.

Washington University physicians at Barnes-Jewish Hospital are in the top 5 percent nationally in the speed in which they treat heart attacks, says Douglas Char, MD, associate professor of emergency medicine. 

Stuart A. Kornfeld, MD, has received the E.B. Wilson Medal, the highest scientific honor awarded by the American Society for Cell Biology. He was presented the medal at the society’s annual meeting in Philadelphia.  

Neuroscientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are studying children who may be at risk for Tourette Syndrome due to the onset of motor and/or vocal tics. Many kids develop tics that later disappear, but the researchers want to learn why for some, those tics represent the beginnings of Tourette Syndrome.