School of Medicine

Timothy J. Eberlein, MD, head of the Department of Surgery and director of the Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine, has been elected to the top leadership post in the American Surgical Association. He is president-elect for the 2010-11 year and will serve as president in 2011-12. 

Scientists regularly discard up to 90 percent of the signals from monitoring of brain waves, one of the oldest techniques for observing changes in brain activity. Now, though, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found evidence that this data may contain significant information about how the brain works.

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis are seeking older volunteers to learn how physical and mental exercise influences brain function and performance of daily activities. For the exercise-training component of the study, researchers will compare aerobic exercise on treadmills or exercise bikes to flexibility training. In the cognitive portion of the study, a specialized brain-training regimen will be compared with a more general health-education program. 

The School of Medicine’s Public Health Interest Group is holding a class at the Herbert Hoover Boys & Girls Club Adams Park Unit to teach children and their parents how to prepare healthy meals. School of Medicine students spend the first hour discussing nutrition with the children and their parents separately, and in the second hour, the families come together to prepare and eat a meal.

Washington University in St. Louis is recognizing Charles F. and Joanne Knight by naming its world-renowned Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) in their honor.

The Shriners Hospitals for Children has resumed plans to build a new hospital at Washington University Medical Center. The project was placed on hold in early 2009 due to the economic downturn and its effect on the international health system’s endowment fund.

Washington University has awarded five Bear Cub Fund grants totaling $165,000 to support innovative research that has shown commercial potential.

Katherine Henzler-Wildman, PhD, has been named a 2010 Searle Scholar, one of 15 U.S. scholars in the chemical and biological sciences to receive the prestigious $300,000, three-year awards. The award will fund Henzler-Wildman’s research into the molecular mechanisms in bacteria that give them multidrug resistance.

The 10th annual Friedman Conference on Aging, “Productive Aging: Cross-Cultural Perspectives from China and the U.S.,” will be held from 8:30 a.m.-noon Tuesday, May 25, in Room 100, Brown Hall. The conference, sponsored by the Harvey A. Friedman Center for Aging and the Center for Social Development, is free and open to the public, but registration is required.

Although Katherine “Kat” Bedigrew has known since she was a child that she wanted to be a physician, one summer she had to quickly become ready for it. Bedigrew, who will receive a medical degree May 21, has been chosen by the Record as an Outstanding Graduate in the School of Medicine.