School of Medicine

Susan E. Mackinnon, M.D., has been elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.

A memorial service will be held in honor of Daniel P. Schuster, M.D., Monday, Oct. 22, from 4-6:30 p.m. at the Eric P. Newman Auditorium.

Photo by Robert BostonDale Thuet, a second-year doctoral student in the Program in Physical Therapy, prepares the InBody body scanner to analyze Nikki Morilak, a first-year student.

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is bringing together a distinguished group of scientists, legal scholars, jurists and philosophers from across the country to help integrate new developments in neuroscience into the U.S. legal system.

Listed below are this month’s featured news stories. • Bright tumors, dim prospects (week of Oct. 3) • New drugs for Parkinson’s (week of Oct. 10) • Heart disease in the mentally ill (week of Oct. 17) • Preventing plaque buildup (week of Oct. 24) • Helping children lose weight (week of Oct. 31)

Children who are obese or who are at risk for obesity show early signs of heart disease similar to obese adults with heart disease, a study by researchers at the School of Medicine has found. “Based on this study, these subtle markers can help us predict who could be at risk for heart disease and heart attacks,” said Angela Sharkey, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics at the School of Medicine and a pediatric cardiologist at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.

A psychiatrist at the School of Medicine writes in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) that although mortality from cardiovascular disease has declined in the United States over the past several decades, patients with severe psychiatric illness are not enjoying the benefits of that progress.

Scientists have shown how developing brain tumors can turn an encounter with a signaling molecule from a fatal experience for the tumor cells into a cue for their own growth and multiplication. Researchers at the School of Medicine found the transformation relies on at least two other molecules that can be modified with existing drugs, opening the possibility that they may be able to use the established drugs to treat brain tumors.

The School of Medicine is collaborating with other area institutions in what will be the largest study of child and human health ever conducted in the United States.

An extra degree of precision will be added to radiation treatments for prostate cancer at the School of Medicine following the installation of two new technologies.