School of Medicine

Van GelderRussell N. Van Gelder, M.D., Ph.D., is the new Bernard Becker Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the School of Medicine. Larry J. Shapiro, M.D., executive vice chancellor for medical affairs and dean of the School of Medicine, announced the appointment.

Moving new technology from the laboratory to patients’ bedsides takes more than just a clever idea. It often requires the combined expertise of university researchers who develop the technology and industry scientists who understand what it takes to get innovations to the marketplace. That’s exactly what two Washington University scientists had in mind when they created a consortium of experts from academia and industry.

A free play that uses a life-sized gelatin cadaver to explore the art and science of anatomy will take place Oct. 24 and 25 at the School of Medicine. “Corpus Delicti: Just Desserts,” which recently had a sold-out run at the University of Chicago, takes place in Holland during the Age of Enlightenment and is loosely based on Rembrandt’s 1632 painting, “The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp.”

PolonskyKenneth S. Polonsky, M.D., has been elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors medical scientists in the United States can receive. Polonsky was honored for his professional achievement in the health sciences, specifically in the area of diabetes.

School of Medicine researchers found that volunteers’ brains produced electrical responses to erotic images that were stronger than those elicited by other material viewed.

A brain region that focuses on vision also receives signals that may help configure the operation of the brain, School of Medicine researchers found.

Listed below are this month’s featured news stories. • Teenage drug, alcohol use (week of Oct. 4) • Nicotine and healing (week of Oct. 11) • Weight loss may indicate dementia (week of Oct. 18) • Living organ donors (week of Oct. 25)

Photo by Ray MarklinGreg Polites, M.D., assistant professor and assistant director of the Emergency Medicine Residency Program, shows Ian English (left) and Vikram Sasi, both pre-med students, a head CT scan.Undergraduate biology course gives students a taste of life as an emergency department physician.

To reach his goal, Thomas Tung has been researching transplantation of hindlimbs to mice from unrelated donors without giving the mice immunosuppressive drugs.

Photo by David Kilper / WUSTL PhotoNew biomaterials greatly reduce the risk of blood clotting.Biomedical engineers at Washington University in St. Louis have developed new biomaterials to recruit endothelial cells to the inner surfaces of vascular grafts. Endothelial cells normally line blood vessels and actively protect against blood clotting. Blood clotting on artificial materials is currently so severe that the use of vascular grafts is limited to large diameter vessels. A team led by Donald Elbert, Ph. D., Washington University assistant professor of biomedical engineering, synthesized the new materials. More…