School of Medicine

In a unanimous decision, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that tissue and blood samples donated to the School of Medicine for prostate cancer research belong to the institution. The three-judge panel said the donors voluntarily made a gift to Washington University when they donated their biological samples and, therefore, the specimens belong to the school.

Susan E. Mackinnon, M.D., was named president of the American Association of Plastic Surgeons at its recent annual meeting in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Mackinnon is the Sydney M. Jr. and Robert H. Shoenberg Professor of Surgery and chief of the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at the School of Medicine.

Women who get most of their daily calcium from food have healthier bones than women whose calcium comes mainly from supplemental tablets, say researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Surprisingly, this is true even though the supplement takers have higher average calcium intake. More…

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.

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.

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.

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.