School of Medicine

A probe of the upper echelons of the human brain’s chain-of-command has found strong evidence that there are not one but two complementary commanders in charge of the brain, according to neuroscientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. It’s as if Captains James T. Kirk and Jean-Luc Picard were both on the bridge and in command of the same starship Enterprise.

St. Louis researchers have identified common DNA variations that underlie susceptibility to fever after smallpox vaccination. Their finding is the first to link individual differences written into the genetic code with a vaccine-related complication – albeit a mild one. Most of the eight genetic alterations the scientists identified increased the likelihood of fever after smallpox vaccination. A few, however, reduced fever risk.

St. Louis native Brad W. Warner, M.D., has been named pediatric surgeon-in-chief at the School of Medicine and St. Louis Children’s Hospital.

Photo by Tim ParkerCharles F. and Joanne Knight with Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton and Tim Eberlein, M.D., at the dedication of the Joanne Knight Breast Health Center and Breast Cancer Program at Siteman Cancer Center.

Malnourished Haitian children will receive a therapuetic peanut-butter mixture to restore them to health thanks to a grant received by a School of Medicine clinician.

Harvey R. Colten, M.D., chair of the Department of Pediatrics from 1986-1997, died Thursday, May 24, 2007, at age 68.

Krikor T. Dikranian, M.D., Ph.D.; Jay F. Piccirillo, M.D.; and David W. Windus, M.D., recently received the Samuel R. Goldstein Leadership Awards for excellence in education.

William C. “Billy” Kaufmann, a multimedia specialist in Medical Computing Services at the School of Medicine, died Monday, May 14, 2007, in a motorcycle accident in south St. Louis.

The School of Medicine is launching the center for Women’s Infectious Disease Research, a new effort to study infectious diseases that preferentially affect women.

A $2.5 million grant will continue the University’s work with local AIDS service organizations and with local health departments to encourage HIV testing.