School of Medicine

Photo by Robert BostonEighteen School of Medicine faculty were recognized Jan. 23 for their accomplishments in clinical care, community service, education and research.

Photo by Tim ParkerSamuel L. Stanley Jr., vice chancellor for research, targets infectious disease, helps faculty meet research goals.

Looking back over the recent past, the advances in biomedicine seem astonishing. The birth of the first “test tube baby” 30 years ago, for example, was viewed as exotic and, to some, scary. Now, in vitro fertilization is commonplace. And yet, justifiable ethical concerns surround the human outcomes of these medical breakthroughs. Leon Kass, M.D., […]

The genetics of aging and the effects of calorie restriction on aging and longevity will be studied at the School of Medicine with funding from the Longer Life Foundation.

Increasing levels of a protein that helps the brain use cholesterol may slow the development of Alzheimer’s disease changes in the brain, according to researchers studying a mouse model of the disease at the School of Medicine.

John Lasala and Ralph Damiano Jr. work together on the first surgery in the PARTNER trial. A 78-year-old St. Louis woman was the first patient in this region to receive an experimental device to replace her defective aortic valve without opening the chest wall or using a heart-lung machine. This procedure was performed by Washington University heart specialists at Barnes-Jewish Hospital on Jan. 15.

Overweight people who lose a moderate amount of weight get an immediate benefit in the form of better heart health, according to a study conducted at the School of Medicine. And the heart improvements happen whether that weight is shed by eating less or exercising more.

*T. gondii* imaged just after reproduction inside a host cell. (Photo by Wandy Beatty.)One of the most common human parasites, Toxoplasma gondii, uses a hormone lifted from the plant world to decide when to increase its numbers and when to remain dormant, researchers at the School of Medicine have found. The scientists report this week in Nature that they successfully blocked production of the molecule, known as abscisic acid (ABA), with a plant herbicide. Low doses of the herbicide prevented fatal T. gondii infection in mice.

Scientists at the School of Medicine have used yeast cells to better understand a collection of proteins associated with the formation of actin networks, which are essential to cell movement. The cell’s ability to move is important to a broad range of biomedical concerns, including understanding how immune system cells pursue disease-causing invaders and how metastasizing cancer cells migrate from a tumor.

The University Bear Cub Fund is soliciting grant applications from University researchers who want to move inventions from their laboratories toward commercialization.