School of Medicine

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.

The University and pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc. will collaborate more closely under a new biomedical research agreement that has the potential to move discoveries from the laboratory bench to patients’ bedsides more quickly. The five-year, $25 million agreement represents a new model of partnership between academia and industry.

The School of Medicine will play a leading role in an international collaboration to sequence the genomes of 1,000 individuals by participating in the ambitious 1,000 Genomes Project, designed to create the most detailed picture to date of human genetic variation and assist in the identification of many genetic factors underlying common diseases.

Preventing Alzheimer’s disease is a goal of Raphael Kopan, Ph.D., professor of molecular biology and pharmacology at the Washington University School of Medicine. The moss plant Physcomitrella patens, studied in the laboratory of Ralph S. Quatrano, Ph.D., the Spencer T. Olin Professor and chair of the biology department on WUSTL’s Danforth Campus, might inch Kopan toward that goal.

A symposium to honor the career of Eugene M. Johnson Jr., Ph.D., will be held Feb. 29 at the Eric P. Newman Education Center,

A group of residents and attending physicians have released a new Washington Manual designed for health-care providers who care for critically ill patients.

Patients with Parkinson’s disease who took part in regular tango dance classes at the School of Medicine showed significant improvements in balance and mobility.

People who spend fewer years in school may experience a slight but significant delay in realizing they have symptoms that could be Alzheimer’s disease.