School of Medicine

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.

By the time they reach school age, one in 20 children have hearing loss in one ear. That can raise significant hurdles for these children, say the results of a new study at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, because loss of hearing in one ear hurts their ability to comprehend and use language. 

Frederick Sweet, PhD, professor of reproductive biology in obstetrics and gynecology, has been awarded a Fulbright grant to conduct research in Bosnia-Herzegovina during 2010-2011.

Three Washington University School of Medicine professors have been elected fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences: Susan Dutcher, Timothy Ley and Robert Schreiber.

A two-day event, hosted by DBBS and the Office of Post Graduate Affairs, brought 19 prospective postdoctoral research scholars to Washington University for a recruiting visit.

Two Washington University doctoral students were inducted into the Edward A. Bouchet Graduate Honor Society at the annual Bouchet Conference on Diversity in Graduate Education this spring at Yale University. The 2010 Bouchet Fellows are Kelly Diggs-Andrews in the Molecular Cell Biology Program in the Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences, and Christie T. Spence in the Clinical Psychology Program in the Department of Psychology in Arts & Sciences.

Each year, more than a million Americans visit the doctor for ankle pain from arthritis. Some of these patients now have another option for their aging joints — ankle replacement.  

Stuart A. Kornfeld, MD, the David C. and Betty Farrell Professor of Medicine, has received one of the highest awards in academic medicine, the 2010 George M. Kober Medal, from the Association of American Physicians. Kornfeld was presented the award on April 23 during the association’s annual meeting in Chicago.

Nerve cells in the body and brain react in opposite ways to the loss of a protein linked to a childhood tumor syndrome, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found. The finding could be important to efforts to preserve the vision of patients with neurofibromatosis 1, a genetic condition that increases risk of benign and malignant brain tumors.