School of Medicine

The schematic in the center shows how a drug molecule (in the circle) prevents UTIs by stopping pili formation.A different approach to treating urinary tract infections (UTIs) could defeat the bacteria that cause the infections without directly killing them, a strategy that could help slow the growth of antibiotic-resistant infections. Instead of trying to wipe out bacteria, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have been working to create pharmaceuticals that essentially “defang” the bacteria by preventing them from assembling pili, microscopic hairs that enable the bacteria to invade host cells and defend themselves against the host’s immune system.

Right now there’s no rapid way to diagnose sepsis, a fast-moving blood infection that is a leading cause of death in hospital intensive care units. Doctors who suspect sepsis typically rush to prescribe powerful antibiotics, but this can lead to the inappropriate treatment of patients with uncontrollable inflammation without an underlying infection. New research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggests that doctors one day could quickly distinguish sepsis from widespread non-infectious inflammation based on genetic profiles of patients’ blood.

The surge of baby boomers now entering their 60s means more drivers on the road who may be impaired by dementia or other cognitive impairments linked to aging. Researchers at the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and elsewhere have developed a three-hour workshop that trains health care providers to identify potentially unsafe drivers with dementia and to encourage appropriate retirement from driving.

David Murray demonstrates defibrillation techniques to a group of students in the Clinical Simulation Center.The Institute of Medicine estimates that medical errors are the eighth leading cause of death in the United States, and poor communication can be a major source of those errors. Now the Clinical Simulation Center at Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis hopes to improve patient safety by using clinical simulators to find the source of miscommunications during medical treatments.

“I smell a rat!” Researchers have found that the sense of smelling in mice is affected by a biological clock devoted entirely to olfaction — smelling stuff, like sleeping and waking, is on a daily cycle.Biologists at Washington University in St. Louis have discovered a large biological clock in the smelling center of mice brains and have revealed that the sense of smell for mice is stronger at night, peaking in evening hours and waning during day light hours. A team led by Erik Herzog, Ph.D., Washington University associate professor of Biology in Arts & Sciences, discovered the clock in the olfactory bulb, the brain center that aids the mouse in detecting odors. More…

More than a decade of searching for factors that make the common parasite Toxoplasma gondii dangerous to humans has pinned 90 percent of the blame on just one of the parasite’s approximately 6,000 genes.

Scientists have identified the first biochemical marker linked to sleep loss, an enzyme in saliva known as amylase, which increases in activity when sleep deprivation is prolonged. Researchers hope to make amylase the first of a panel of biomarkers that will aid diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders and may one day help assess the risk of falling asleep at the wheel of a car or in other dangerous contexts.

Peanut butter is energy rich food, and it doesn’t spoil. That’s exactly why WUSM pediatrician Mark Manary chose it to nourish hungry children in Malawi. Manary’s nonprofit organization, Project Peanut Butter, was approved by the World Health Organization in 2005, but he continues to search for better ways to feed a starving nation.

The School of Medicine researchers have been named to the 2006 Scientific American 50.

School of Medicine researchers found that a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug administered at typically nontoxic doses significantly increased liver damage in mice with a mutant human gene.