School of Medicine

WilsonWilliam Julius Wilson, one of the nation’s leading scholars on race and urban poverty, will deliver this year’s Martin Luther King Jr. celebration lecture at 4 p.m. Jan. 19 in the Eric P. Newman Education Center, 320 S. Euclid, on the School of Medicine campus.

Marcia Munk, Universidade Federal de São PauloWhat if free exercise classes were offered in public spaces such as parks, beaches and recreation centers? When a city government in Brazil tried such a program, it greatly increased physical activity among community members. A group of health researchers who studied the program believes it could also work in U.S. cities with warm climates.

In small towns in the Midwestern United States, people who eat out often at buffets and cafeterias and who perceive their community to be unpleasant for physical activity are more likely to be obese. The findings are published in the December issue of Preventive Medicine.

Six faculty members from Washington University in St. Louis have been named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society. The highest honor awarded by AAAS, the rank of fellow is bestowed upon members by their peers in recognition of scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.

One of the most pernicious aspects of multiple sclerosis (MS) — its sheer unpredictability — may finally be starting to yield to advanced medical imaging techniques. Researchers from the School of Medicine report online in the journal Neurology that an approach known as magnetic resonance diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) allowed them to estimate three months in advance the chronic effects of inflammation of the optic nerve.

Obesity researchers at the School of Medicine are recruiting families for an on-line program aimed at young children that targets healthy eating and physical activity. The 10-month study will evaluate the effectiveness of Food for Thought, an investigational, Internet-based program for parents of overweight 2- to 6-year-olds.

A program at the School of Medicine and St. Louis Children’s Hospital designed to increase awareness about sickle cell disease and the importance of blood donations within the African-American faith community led to a 60 percent increase in first-time blood donations, a new study has found.

InderTerrie E. Inder, M.D., Ph.D., has received a 2008 Distinguished Clinical Scientist Award from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Inder is a pediatrician and researcher at the School of Medicine and St. Louis Children’s Hospital.

On Dec. 17 at the Duane Reed Gallery in Clayton, the Arts as Healing Program is hosting a public showing of art created by cancer patients. This reception, from 5:30 to 8 p.m., will celebrate these patients as artists and honor “their journey of hope.”

Douglas Mann has been named the Tobias and Hortense Lewin Professor and director of the Cardiovascular Division in the Department of Medicine at the School of Medicine. The appointment will be effective in March 2009. He will also become cardiologist-in-chief at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and director of the new Heart and Vascular Institute at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University.