School of Medicine

The National Cancer Institute has awarded Siteman Cancer Center and Washington University School of Medicine a prestigious Specialized Program of Research Excellence grant in endometrial cancer. 

Children with asthma who continue to have symptoms while using low-dose inhaled corticosteroids could benefit from increasing the dosage or adding one of two asthma drugs, according to a new study at the School of Medicine and other institutions. The research is published online in the New England Journal of Medicine.

A genome-wide study into the genetic roots of alcoholism has identified several areas of DNA that appear to contribute to the disease. But researchers say those genes make relatively modest contributions to overall risk of alcoholism.

A newly identified cancer biomarker could define a new subtype of breast cancer as well as offer a potential way to treat it, say researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The biomarker is found frequently in breast cancers that have poorer outcomes and can be inhibited by a protein discovered in the same laboratory, which could become an effective drug against the breast cancer type.

Joseph C. “Bo” Koster, Ph.D., research assistant professor of cell biology and physiology, died Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2010, of an apparent heart attack at his home in the Central West End. He was 45.

R. Sherburne Figenshau, M.D., has been named the Taylor Family and Ralph V. Clayman, M.D., Minimally Invasive Urology Chair at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Members of the Student National Medical Association at the School of Medicine have been working with area high school students to expose them to medicine and science.

Robert K. Jackler, M.D., the Sewall Professor and Chair of otolaryngology and associate dean at Stanford University School of Medicine, has gathered advertisements using doctors to promote cigarettes into an exhibit that will be on display in the Farrell Learning and Teaching Center and the Bernard Becker Medical Library beginning Monday, March 1 through Friday, April 30. He also will give a free, public lecture at noon Tuesday, March 9, in Connor Auditorium.

Orthopedic surgeons from the School of Medicine operated Feb. 19 to save the leg of 11-year-old Jean Patrickson, who survived the earthquake in Haiti and was flown to St. Louis for treatment.

Researchers at the School of Medicine have peered deep into the eye of the chicken and found a masterpiece of biological design. They plan follow-up studies that could eventually provide helpful insights for scientists seeking to use stem cell and other techniques to treat the nearly 200 genetic disorders that can cause various forms of blindness.