School of Medicine

The sound of a noisy Chicago restaurant during the breakfast rush — the clang of plates and silverware and the clamor of many voices — was the crucial test of new hearing aid technology in a study conducted by researchers at the School of Medicine. The study showed that the hearing aids worked well in a noisy environment — the most challenging test for a hearing aid.

The School of Medicine will receive approximately $9 million over 5 years to investigate new ways to diagnose and treat stroke. The new research center will become part of a national network of stroke centers.

Medical science may be a significant step closer to climbing into the driver’s seat of an important class of immune cells, researchers at the School of Medicine report in Nature Immunology.

Compact, bedside brain-activity monitors detected most seizures in at-risk infants, researchers at the School of Medicine showed. That means the compact units could assist clinicians in monitoring for electrical seizures until confirmation with conventional EEG (electroencephalography), the researchers assert in an article published in the June issue of Pediatrics.

MurphyResearchers have shown that they can put mouse embryonic stem cells to work building the heart, potentially moving medical science a significant step closer to a new generation of heart disease treatments that use human stem cells. Kenneth Murphy is senior author of the research at the School of Medicine.

Saturday can be the worst enemy for our waistlines, according to researchers at the School of Medicine. They found that study subjects on strict diet and exercise programs tend to lose weight more slowly than expected because they eat more on weekends than during the week.

Surgery to remove a kidney tumor is no longer a hands-on operation. Sam Bhayani, a urologic surgeon at the school of Medicine, has pioneered robotic surgery for kidney cancer. Instead of standing for hours with his arms raised above the patient, Bhayani sits at a nearby computer console to maneuver joystick-like controls that guide robotic scalpels, scissors and high-resolution cameras.

ParkT.S. Park, the chief of pediatric neurosurgery at St. Louis Children’s Hospital and Shi Hui Huang Professor of Neurological Surgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has received the H. Richard Winn, M.D., Prize, the highest honor of the Society of Neurological Surgeons. The international award recognizes a neurosurgeon for outstanding research in the neurosciences that impacts clinical practice.

DeBaunMichael DeBaun has been named the Ferring Family Chair in Pediatric Cancer and Related Disorders at the School of Medicine and St. Louis Children’s Hospital. The endowed chair was established by John and Alison Ferring of St. Louis. DeBaun is professor of pediatrics, of biostatistics and of neurology at the School of Medicine and a pediatric hematologist/oncologist at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.

Washington University has awarded four Bear Cub Fund grants totaling $150,000 to support innovative research projects that could be attractive for licensing by commercial entities or serve as the foundation for a start-up company.