Artificial pump effectively backs up failing hearts

Patients with severe heart failure can be bridged to eventual transplant by a new, smaller and lighter implantable heart pump, according to a just-completed study of the device. Results of this third-generation heart assist device were reported at the 58th annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology on March 30.

$5.5 million from Gates Foundation funds major study of childhood malnutrition

Scientists who first established a link between obesity and the trillions of friendly microbes that live in the intestine now are investigating whether the organisms can contribute to the converse: severe malnutrition. Researchers at the School of Medicine, led by microbiologist Jeffrey Gordon, M.D., will study whether severely malnourished infants living in Malawi and Bangladesh have a different mix of intestinal microbes than healthy infants in the same areas, and whether those microbes might account for their illness. This three-year, $5.5 million project is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Dehner receives pathologists’ highest honor

DehnerLouis P. “Pepper” Dehner, a faculty member at the School of Medicine, received the Distinguished Pathologist Award of the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology (USCAP) at the academy’s 2009 annual meeting. Held in Boston March 7-13, the meeting is the largest annual gathering of pathologists, and the Distinguished Pathologist Award is its highest honor.

Ticking of body’s 24-hour clock turns gears of metabolism and aging

All animals, including humans, have an internal 24-hour clock or circadian rhythm that creates a daily oscillation of body temperature, brain activity, hormone production and metabolism. Studying mice, researchers at the School of Medicine and Northwestern University found how the biological circadian clock mechanism communicates with processes that govern aging and metabolism.

StoryCorps to capture parents’ stories at Siteman Cancer Center

Nationally recognized StoryCorps will visit the Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine April 17-21 as part of a collaborative project to better understand how parents with cancer discuss the diagnosis with their children. This visit is the first time that StoryCorps, the largest oral history project of its kind, has partnered to collect the stories of cancer survivors on a single topic.

Blocking protein may help ease painful nerve condition

Exposure to a chemotherapeutic drug makes the branches of a normal nerve cell degenerate (left).Scientists have identified the first gene that pulls the plug on ailing nerve cell branches from within the nerve cell, possibly helping to trigger the painful condition known as neuropathy. The condition is a side effect of some forms of chemotherapy and can also afflict patients with cancer, diabetes, kidney failure, viral infections, neurodegenerative disorders and other ailments.

Well-known enzyme is unexpected contributor to brain growth

An enzyme researchers have studied for years because of its potential connections to cancer, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and stroke appears to have yet another major role to play: helping create and maintain the brain. When scientists at the School of Medicine selectively disabled the enzyme AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) in mouse embryos, overall brain size was reduced by 50 percent, the cerebrum and cerebellum were shrunken, and the mice died within three weeks of birth.
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