School of Medicine

Tiny pumpkins and other produce are part of the Sixth Annual School of Medicine Student, Faculty and Staff Art Show at the Farrell Learning and Teaching Center.

Exposure to severe stress early in life increases the risk of alcohol and drug addiction. Yet surprisingly, some adults sexually abused as children — and therefore at high risk for alcohol problems — carry gene variants that protect them from heavy drinking and its effects, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Cleft palate has been linked to dozens of genes. During their investigation of one of these genes, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis were surprised to find that cleft palate occurs both when the gene is more active and when it is less active than normal. 

After two years of eager anticipation, the first occupants of the BJC Institute of Health at Washington University began moving in last week.

Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has received a five-year, $13 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to improve efforts to eliminate two parasitic diseases, elephantiasis and river blindness. The award is believed to be the largest global health grant so far to the University.

More than 230 guests at the School of Medicine’s Martin Luther King Jr. celebration Jan. 18 gathered to hear Johnnetta Cole, Ph.D., director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, speak on diversity in the medical field.

A type of antibiotic that can cause hearing loss in people has been found to paradoxically protect the ears when given in extended low doses in very young mice. The surprise finding came from researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis who looked to see if loud noise and the antibiotic kanamycin together would produce a bigger hearing loss than either factor by itself.

The largest U.S. epidemiological study of Parkinson’s disease has found that the disease is more prevalent in the Midwest and the Northeast and is twice as likely to strike whites and Hispanics as blacks and Asians. Researchers analyzed data on more than 36 million Medicare recipients.

Teresa J. Vietti, M.D., a pediatric oncologist who earned the nickname, “the mother of pediatric cancer therapy,” died Jan. 25, 2010. She was 82.

Paul Bridgman, Ph.D., Barry Sleckman, M.D., Ph.D., and Mort Smith, M.D., have been chosen to receive the Samuel R. Goldstein Leadership Awards in Medical Student Education for 2009.