School of Medicine

Scientists at the School of Medicine will use $14 million in grant funds to establish or expand facilities that provide services needed for research.

A leader in cancer prevention joins Siteman Cancer Center to oversee research, education and community outreach in cancer prevention.

Thomas Ferkol, M.D., has been named director of the Division of Allergy and Pulmonary Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics.

Photo by Ray MarklinLarry J. Shapiro, M.D., and Diana Gray, M.D., talk with Shamika Ketkar and Shashikant Kulkarni, Ph.D., at the New Faculty Reception Oct. 4 at the Missouri Botanical Garden.

The large globules in the liver cells on the left are characteristic of alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency. The image on the right shows normal liver cells.Research performed at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis sheds light on the mechanisms that contribute to liver disease in alpha-1-AT deficiency patients. People with alpha-1-deficiency have a genetic mutation that can lead to emphysema at an early age and to liver damage. Using an experimental mouse model of the disorder, the researchers investigated the effects of a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) on liver injury.

A simple points system may soon help guide treatment of elderly heart failure patients. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found that by counting how many of seven easy-to-obtain health factors a patient has, physicians can estimate the patient’s risk of dying.

On a mammogram, LCIS and ALH typically look like small deposits of calcium.In women whose initial breast biopsies revealed certain rare, yet benign breast conditions, more extensive follow-up surgical biopsies found that up to 25% of them actually had cancer in addition to these benign lesions. Most of the cancers were invasive, meaning the tumors had penetrated normal breast tissue and would require treatment. In the study, conducted at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, the women’s initial biopsies had revealed atypical lobular hyperplasia (ALH) or lobular carcinoma-in-situ (LCIS), conditions that increase the risk of breast cancer, but which are themselves considered benign.

More than 80,000 people in the United States are on waiting lists for organ transplants. Some will have to wait for the death of a matching donor, but more and more people are receiving organs from living donors. In an effort to close the gap between organ supply and demand, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine, the University of Michigan and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons are studying ways to reimburse living donors for some of their out-of-pocket expenses when they choose to donate an organ.

Nearly 70 percent of kidney transplant patients get short-term drug therapy initially administered during surgery to help prevent rejection. In the first head-to-head comparison of the two drugs most commonly given to ward off acute kidney rejection, an international study led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis shows that one – anti-thymocyte globulin – is superior.

Studies of a rare genetic condition that increases cancer risk have unveiled a potential treatment for metabolic syndrome, a common disorder that afflicts as many as one in every four American adults and puts them at sharply increased risk of type 2 diabetes and clogged arteries.