School of Medicine

Twenty-one years after they first described a fatal genetic disorder in Missouri and Arkansas families, scientists at the School of Medicine have linked the condition to mutations in a gene known as TREX1. The study appears online in Nature Genetics. The identification will accelerate efforts to understand and treat retinal vasculopathy with cerebral leukodystrophy (RVCL), a rare condition that usually goes unrecognized or is misdiagnosed.

Researchers at the School of Medicine have found further evidence linking a method used to deliver gene therapy in humans with the development of liver tumors in mice. The new research, published in the July 27 journal Science, suggests that ferrying a corrective gene into mice using a disabled virus – an adeno-associated virus (AAV) – inadvertently inserts mutations into the mouse DNA that initiate tumor growth.

An improved approach to gene therapy may one day treat some of the nearly 200 inherited forms of blindness, scientists at the School of Medicine suggest this week. In a paper published online by Public Library of Science ONE, researchers take initial steps toward filling a gap in the toolkit for treating blindness by identifying DNA elements that control when and where genes linked to blindness are turned on.

Itching for a better anti-itch remedy? Your wish may soon be granted now that scientists at the School of Medicine have identified the first gene for the itch sensation in the central nervous system. The discovery could rapidly lead to new treatments directly targeting itchiness and providing relief for chronic and severe itching.

A spoken word piece on hepatitis B created by a WUSTL medical student and a recent graduate is part of a national education campaign by the national Asian Pacific American Medical Student Association.

Matthew B. Dobbs, M.D., has designed a dynamic brace, called the Dobbs brace, to provide advanced treatment to children born with clubfoot.

Aaron Hamvas, M.D., a leading authority on a lethal infant lung disease, has been appointed the first James P. Keating, M.D., Professor of Pediatrics.

Photo by Robert BostonSt. Louis Public Schools students are participating in the Young Scientist Program designed to attract students from disadvantaged backgrounds into scientific careers.

In recent years, sports hernias have sidelined many high-level athletes for months and, occasionally, prevented a return to competitive sports all together. New research at the School of Medicine shows that surgical repair of sports hernias using tension-free mesh, coupled with an innovative rehabilitation program, successfully returned athletes to competition in 93 percent of cases.

GoldbergAnne Carol Goldberg, M.D. was elected president of the National Lipid Association (NLA) at the association’s recent 2007 Annual Scientific Sessions in Scottsdale, Ariz. Goldberg is an associate professor of medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and on staff at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.