School of Medicine

Peter Burgers, PhD, the Marvin A. Brennecke Professor of Biological Chemistry at the School of Medicine, is an expert in DNA replication and repair — fundamental cellular processes shared across organisms, from yeast to humans.

Eleven faculty members from Washington University School of Medicine were honored Feb. 9 at the 2011 Distinguished Faculty Awards ceremony at the Eric P. Newman Education Center.

A parasite and a virus may be teaming up in a way that increases the parasite’s ability to harm humans, scientists at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis report this week in Science.

Teen mothers who eat breakfast have healthier weights and snacking habits and may influence healthy eating habits among their children, says a recent study by obesity prevention expert Debra Haire-Joshu, PhD, professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. “It’s important to look at dietary patterns among postpartum teens to help reduce weight retention and prevent intergenerational obesity,” she says. “Overall, breakfast consumption among postpartum teens is low and interventions are needed to encourage breakfast consumption among teen mothers.”

Bacteria often attack with toxins designed to hijack or even kill host cells. To avoid self-destruction, bacteria have ways of protecting themselves from their own toxins. Now, researchers have described one of these protective mechanisms, potentially paving the way for new classes of antibiotics that cause the bacteria’s toxins to turn on themselves.

Washington University School of Medicine researchers report they have identified a gene that limits damage to the lung during acute stress from illness, trauma or transplant.

Like listeners adjusting a high-tech radio, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have tuned in to precise frequencies of brain activity to unleash new insights into how the brain works. “Analysis of brain function normally focuses on where brain activity happens and when,” says Eric Leuthardt, MD. “What we’ve found is that the wavelength of the activity provides a third major branch of understanding brain physiology.”

Washington University engineering students Nalin Katta and Matthew MacEwan, who also is a School of Medicine student, won the Olin Cup business plan competition Feb. 3 and $50,000 in seed investment for an invention that can replace the protective covering of the brain. With 49 entrants, this year’s competition was the largest group of ventures yet.

High school students who smoke, drink, use drugs or engage in other risky behaviors also are more likely to become pregnant or to impregnate a sexual partner, according to new research from psychiatry researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. And it wasn’t just one pregnancy. Those involved in risky activities had an even greater risk for multiple pregnancies. 

The Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center at Washington University will hold an opening celebration symposium Tuesday, March 1.