School of Medicine

Experts in alcoholism and suicide from around the United States will present their research Feb. 21 at the 8th Annual Samuel B. Guze Symposium on Alcoholism at the School of Medicine. This year’s event focuses on “Alcohol, Suicide and Suicidality.” The program is intended for physicians, psychologists, social workers, teachers, policy makers, other health professionals and members of the community.

A gene linked to pediatric brain tumors is an essential driver of early brain development, School of Medicine researchers have found. The study, published recently in Cell Stem Cell, reveals that the neurofibromatosis 1 (NF1) gene helps push stem cells down separate paths that lead them to become two major types of brain cells: support cells known as astrocytes and brain neurons.

Therapists and eating disorders specialists at the School of Medicine are joining investigators at a handful of sites around North America to evaluate anorexia nervosa treatments. Only 25 percent of anorexia patients recover completely, and the goal of this study is to improve those odds.

Walter C. Bauer, M.D., a retired professor of pathology at the School of Medicine, died Saturday, Feb. 2, 2008. He was 82.

The kidney actively cleans its most selective filter to keep it from clogging with blood proteins, School of Medicine scientists reveal in a new study. Researchers showed that breakdown of a self-cleaning feature can make kidneys more vulnerable to dysfunction and disease.

William F. Howard, a long-time higher education attorney, has been appointed associate vice chancellor and chief counsel to the School of Medicine.

A gene linked to pediatric brain tumors is an essential driver of early brain development, School of Medicine researchers have found.

Photo by Robert BostonSusie Strecker (left), instructor in physical therapy, reaches out to Madelyn Latacha, daughter of Kim Latacha, in the Kinesiology II course in the Program in Physical Therapy. Students observe and try to guess Madelyn’s age by her movements.

The Children’s Discovery Institute has approved $2.2 million for new research and to appoint two full-time scholars and one academic fellow.

Critically ill patients who need a ventilator to breathe face a high risk of pneumonia. The lung infection, however, is exceedingly difficult to diagnose because a patient’s underlying condition often skews laboratory test results and masks pneumonia’s symptoms – a reality that can delay appropriate antibiotic treatment. Using gene chip technology, scientists at the School of Medicine demonstrate for the first time they can distinguish pneumonia associated with ventilator use from other serious illnesses.