Future geneticist?
Photo by Tim ParkerSeqwinya Stevens from Beaumont High School in St. Louis presents her research on the Jun B gene from hair cells in the chicken ear as part of the Young Scientist Program at the School of Medicine.
How do you measure a broken heart? Researchers find long-sought answer
School of Medicine researchers have found a method for reliably measuring the filling function of the heart.
Test can predict spread of eye cancer to liver
Gene expression mapScientists at the School of Medicine have developed a method to predict whether melanoma of the eye will spread to the liver, where it quickly turns deadly. They also believe the molecular screening test may one day help determine the prognosis of patients with some types of skin melanoma. The researchers found that a particular molecular signature — a pattern of activation of a group of genes in the tumor cells — accurately predicts risk for metastasis.
Transplant cures rats’ type 2 diabetes without immune suppression drugs
An approach proven to cure a rat model of type 1 or juvenile-onset diabetes also works in a rat model of type 2 or adult-onset diabetes, according to a new report from researchers at the School of Medicine.
Before dementia’s first signs appear, weight-loss rate doubles in elderly
A long-term study of the elderly has revealed that their average rate of weight loss doubles in the year before symptoms of Alzheimer’s-type dementia first become detectable. The finding may be useful to researchers seeking ways to detect and treat Alzheimer’s before it causes irreversible brain damage.
Construction begins on orthopaedic center
Some Washington University orthopaedic surgery patients will soon be treated at a new $13 million outpatient facility in Chesterfield, Mo.
Cortisone’s connection to osteoporosis becomes clearer
School of Medicine researchers are investigating why high-dose cortisone is the second most common cause of osteoporosis.
‘Symposium at 77’ to honor Frieden
The Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics celebrates the contributions of former department head and longtime professor Carl Frieden, Ph.D.
On her way
Photo by Robert BostonFirst-year medical students take part in long tradition of receiving white coats.
Pathway toward gene silencing described in plants
Olga Pontes is Going FISHin’.Biologists at Washington University in St. Louis have made an important breakthrough in understanding a pathway plant cells take to silence unwanted or extra genes using short bits of RNA. Basically, they have made it possible to see where, and how, the events in the pathway unfold within the cell, and seeing is believing, as the old saying goes. Craig Pikaard, Ph.D., Washington University professor of biology in Arts & Sciences and his collaborators have described the roles that eight proteins in Arabidopsis plants play in a pathway that brings about DNA methylation, an epigenetic function that involves a chemical modification of cytosine, one of the four chemical subunits of DNA. More…
View More Stories