School of Medicine

An ongoing effort to identify the microorganisms that make us sick has discovered a new virus potentially linked to unexplained respiratory infections. Clinicians can typically use a patient’s symptoms to determine that a virus is the likely culprit in a respiratory infection. However, even with advanced testing they still can’t pin the blame on a particular virus in roughly one-third of all such infections.

Some people with mild asthma using a twice-daily inhaled steroid to prevent asthma symptoms might be able to cut their medication use to only once a day, according to a study by the American Lung Association (ALA). These findings may allow some patients to simplify their treatment, says Mario Castro, associate professor of medicine and pediatrics.

Faculty members Helen M. Piwnica-Worms, Ph.D., of the School of Medicine, and Murray L. Weidenbaum, Ph.D., of the Danforth Campus, have been elected fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Photo by Robert BostonAnn Vitale adjusts Emily Gravenhorst’s prosthetic ear in the School of Medicine’s maxillofacial prosthetics laboratory.The medical school’s maxillofacial prosthetics laboratory helps patients fit back into society after disfigurement due to accident or disease.

Two recently initiated School of Medicine programs will grant degrees and certificates this year to their first classes.

Mice with chronic herpes virus infections can better resist the bacterium that causes plague and a bacterium that causes one kind of food poisoning, researchers report in this week’s Nature. Scientists at the School of Medicine attributed the surprising finding to changes in the immune system triggered by the long-term presence of a latent herpes virus infection.

Listed below are this month’s featured news stories. • Alcohol’s effect on spouses (week of May 2) • DNA links to autism (week of May 9) • Fewer steroids for some with asthma (week of May 16) • Increasing blood flow (week of May 16) • New treatment for heart disorder (week of May 30)

Robert J. Hayashi, M.D., has been named director of the Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology in the Department of Pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine. A member of the faculty at the School of Medicine since 1992, Hayashi is an associate professor of pediatrics.

Andrey Shaw, M.D., has been named the Emil R. Unanue Professor of Immunobiology in the Department of Pathology and Immunology.

Three University scientists recently were elected to the National Academy of Sciences. WUSTL’s new academy members are Clifford M. Will, Ph.D., the James S. McDonnell Professor of Physics in Arts & Sciences; Wayne M. Yokoyama, M.D., the Sam J. Levin and Audrey Loew Levin Professor of Research in Arthritis and professor of medicine and of pathology and immunology; and Aaron J. Ciechanover, M.D., D.Sc., visiting professor of pediatrics at the School of Medicine and the Research Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry at Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.