School of Medicine

Adults diagnosed with ulcerative colitis after age 50 are more likely to achieve remission from their symptoms than patients diagnosed at younger ages, even when those patients receive similar treatments, according to research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The study is the first to look at patients whose colitis was treated with modern medications. Nearly 1 million U.S. adults have ulcerative colitis. 

Kenneth S. Polonsky, MD, the Adolphus Busch Professor and head of the Department of Medicine, has been named dean of the Division of the Biological Sciences and the Pritzker School of Medicine and executive vice president for medical affairs at the University of Chicago.

Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital plan to build a new Siteman Cancer Center in south St. Louis County, serving the Interstate 55 corridor and southern Illinois.

The protein SIRT1 in the brain is tied into a mechanism that allows animals to survive when food is scarce, according to a new study at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The research suggests that SIRT1 may be involved with the life span-increasing effect of low-calorie diets, they report.

To ensure that all students have the best opportunity to learn and thrive, Washington University School of Medicine is again sponsoring its annual school supply drive to benefit Adams Elementary School in the Forest Park Southeast neighborhood.

Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found a way to significantly reduce atherosclerosis in mice that does not involve lowering cholesterol levels or eliminating other obesity-related problems. Atherosclerosis is the process through which fatty substances, such as cholesterol and cellular waste products accumulate in the lining of arteries. The research team inhibited atherosclerosis in the mice by interfering with production of a substance called fatty acid synthase, an enzyme that converts dietary sugars into fatty acids in the liver.  

Occupational therapy students learn the powerful effect of alcohol on an egg to demonstrate fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.

Improving the lives of infants and children with developmental disabilities will be the focus of Washington University’s new Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (WUIDDRC).

Ralph J. Damiano Jr., MD, chief of cardiac surgery and the John M. Shoenberg Professor of Surgery at Washington University School of Medicine, was elected president of the International Society of Minimally Invasive Cardiothoracic Surgery for 2010-11.

A parasite estimated to afflict as many as 12 million people worldwide relies on a family of genes that should make it vulnerable to compounds developed to treat cancer and other disorders, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found.