School of Medicine

Children born with Marfan syndrome, a genetic disorder involving the connective tissue, have a variety of physical signs – disproportionately long arms, legs, fingers and toes; scoliosis or other spinal curvature; nearsightedness; unusually large lungs; and stretch marks on the skin. But one of the most dangerous effects of the disease is the development of an enlarged aorta, which can lead to rupture of the heart’s largest artery and to sudden death.

In these PET images, a cervical tumor glows brightly before therapy (left), but is no longer visible after therapy.Whole-body PET (positron emission tomography) scans done three months after completion of cervical cancer therapy can ensure that patients are disease-free or warn that further interventions are needed, according to a study at the School of Medicine. “This is the first time we can say that we have a reliable test to follow cervical cancer patients after therapy,” says Julie Schwarz, a Barnes-Jewish Hospital resident in the Department of Radiation Oncology.

A multinational team of researchers has shown for the first time that the immune system can stop the growth of a cancerous tumor without actually killing it. Scientists have been working for years to use the immune system to eradicate cancers, a technique known as immunotherapy. The new findings prove an alternate to this approach exists: When the cancer can’t be killed with immune attacks, it may be possible to find ways to use the immune system to contain it.

Scientists at the School of Medicine and at Utah State University believe they have found an explanation for a puzzling and serious complication of West Nile virus infection.

Babies who get severe respiratory viral infections are much more likely to suffer from asthma as they get older. Now School of Medicine researchers have pinpointed a key step in the development of asthma in mice after a severe respiratory infection. They suggest that medications designed to interfere with this mechanism could potentially prevent many […]

Listed below are this month’s featured news stories. • Age-related macular degeneration (week of Nov. 7) • An eye on curing diabetes (week of Nov. 14) • Obesity and heart disease in kids (week of Nov. 21) • Depression and diabetes (week of Nov. 28)

The cowpox virus, a much milder cousin of the deadly smallpox virus, can keep infected host cells from warning the immune system that they have been compromised, researchers at the School of Medicine have found. The scientists also showed that more virulent poxviruses, such as the strains of monkeypox prevalent in Central Africa, likely have the same ability.

Subtle markers in obese children’s hearts can help physicians predict who could be at risk for heart disease and heart attacks.

New School of Medicine research provides an unprecedented view of the abnormal genetic landscape in lung cancer cells from patients with lung cancer.

Medications designed to interfere with this mechanism could prevent many cases of childhood asthma, School of Medicine researchers have found.