School of Medicine

Using radiofrequency devices, School of Medicine heart surgeons have shortened atrial fibrillation surgery and made it easier to perform.

At the School of Medicine “smokeout” Nov. 16, employees who smoke will receive a special gift in exchange for their cigarettes.

A new device used at Siteman Cancer Center will protect staff from the possibility of incidental exposure to trace amounts of chemotherapy drugs generated during administration.

A specialist with the Barnes Retina Institute, Van Gelder also directs the Uveitis Service for the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences.

Photo by Robert BostonThe staff at the Washington University Diabetes Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital discuss nutrition and insulin pumps at the Open House Sept. 25.

ColditzGraham A. Colditz, M.D., Dr.P.H., has been named the Niess-Gain Professor and associate director of Prevention and Control at the Siteman Cancer Center at the School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital. He will have overall responsibility for overseeing research, education, and community outreach in cancer prevention sponsored by the Center.

Scientists have identified a naturally occurring enzyme that can break down a key component of the brain plaques characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease. The finding may provide researchers with new opportunities to understand what goes wrong in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients and could one day help them seek new therapies.

The School of Medicine, a research leader in Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, stroke and schizophrenia, will be among the first recipients of a major new National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant to facilitate study of nervous system disorders. The NIH Blueprint for the Neurosciences Grant will provide $8 million to the University over five years.

FerkolThomas Ferkol, M.D., has been named director of the Division of Allergy and Pulmonary Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Ferkol, associate professor of pediatrics and of cell biology and physiology, will continue as director of the Pediatric Pulmonology Fellowship Program and as director of the Cystic Fibrosis Center.

School of Medicine pediatric ophthalmologists surgically correct vision on some of the most profoundly impaired children.