School of Medicine

The Danforth Foundation has granted the Hope Center for Neurological Disorders at the School of Medicine a $10 million endowed gift for research into a range of conditions that cause injury and impairment to the brain and central nervous system. The funds will be used to support innovative and groundbreaking new ideas for research with clear potential to improve diagnosis and treatment of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson’s disease, stroke, Huntington’s disease, multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy and other disorders.

Pear-shaped people who carry weight in the thighs and backside have been told for years they are at lower risk for high blood pressure and heart disease than apple-shaped people who carry fat in the abdomen. But in two studies, School of Medicine researchers report that body shape isn’t the only marker of risk. Excess liver fat appears to be the key to insulin resistance, cholesterol abnormalities and other problems that contribute to diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Barack Obama will need to act swiftly in his first 100 days as president to resolve the domestic crises facing the nation, but concerns about the economy mean that health care reform will not be the highest priority during that time, says leading public health experts at Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL). Debra Haire-Joshu, Ph.D., professor of social work and medicine at WUSTL, and Timothy McBride, Ph.D., associate dean for public health at WUSTL’s George Warren Brown School of Social Work, are available to discuss health care legislation under Obama. Haire-Joshu served in Obama’s congressional office and McBride is part of the nationally representative Rural Policy Research Institute’s Health Panel.

Medical students and their professors discuss the Distinguished Service Teaching Awards after the Nov. 18 ceremony at the Eric P. Newman Education Center. The awards are presented annually to faculty and house staff in appreciation of exemplary service in medical student education.

A class of drugs used in premature infants to treat chronic lung damage can cause damage in the brain, School of Medicine research suggests.

School of Medicine researchers have now determined that pain and itch are regulated by different molecular mechanisms.

Drugs used to treat type 2 diabetes may be more likely to keep working if used in moderation, School of Medicine researchers have found

School of Medicine researchers have validated using gene chip technology to rapidly detect pneumonia associated with ventilator use in hospitalized patients.

Trillions of microbes make their home in the gut, where they help to break down and extract energy and nutrients from the food we eat. Yet, scientists have understood little about how this distinctive mix of microbes varies from one individual to the next. Now, researchers at the School of Medicine have discovered that each individual carries a unique collection of bacteria, although the communities are more similar among family members.

Ellen Damschen & Forest ServiceA new paper on ecological corridors co-authored by Washington University biologists Ellen Damschen and John Orrock in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, was published online Dec. 1 as part of a special issue on movement ecology. This research reveals that by understanding how species move, you can predict if and how corridors work.