School of Medicine

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)

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 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.

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…

Photo by David Kilper / WUSTL PhotoHimadri Pakrasi explains the photobioreactor in his Rebstock Hall laboratory.The United States Department of Energy (DOE) has devoted $1.6 million to sequencing the DNA of six photosynthetic bacteria that Washington University in St. Louis biologists will examine for their potential as one of the nextgreat sources of biofuel that can run our cars and warm our houses. That’s a lot of power potential from microscopic cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) that capture sunlight and then do a variety of biochemical processes. One potential process, the clean production of ethanol, is a high priority for DOE. Himadri Pakrasi, Ph.D., Washington University Professor of Biology in Arts & Sciences, and Professor of Energy in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, will head a team of biologists at Washington University and elsewhere in the analysis of the genomes of six related strains of Cyanothece bacteria. More…

Photo by David Kilper / WUSTL PhotoResearchers have enabled a 14-year-old to play a two-dimensional video game using signals from his brain instead of his hands.Teenage boys and computer games go hand-in-hand. Now, a St. Louis-area teenage boy and a computer game have gone hands-off, thanks to a unique experiment conducted by a team of neurosurgeons, neurologists, and engineers at Washington University in St. Louis. The boy, a 14-year-old who suffers from epilepsy, is the first teenager to play a two-dimensional video game, Space Invaders, using only the signals from his brain to make movements. More…

The School of Medicine has begun using a unique device that completely seals drug vials, IV hookups and syringes, preventing escape of hazardous medical compounds during the mixing and administration of chemotherapy drugs.