School of Medicine

With commonly available treatment strategies, 90 percent of women with recurrent cervical cancer die within five years. So physicians are understandably eager to uncover more effective drug therapies, and researchers at the School of Medicine have now obtained encouraging results by combining a traditional cell-killing agent with Avastin, a recently developed inhibitor of blood-vessel growth.

These brain images point out the areas most consistently active during a variety of cognitive tasks.Scientists have used data from scans of 183 subjects to identify brain areas that consistently become active in a variety of cognitive tasks, such as reading, learning a rhythm or analyzing a picture. If the brain in action can be compared to a symphony, with specialized sections required to pitch in at the right time to produce the desired melody, then the regions highlighted by the new study may be likened to conductors, researchers at the School of Medicine assert.

Photo by Robert BostonGov. Matt Blunt addressed a group of several hundred local science, business and academic leaders at WUSTL’s 21st Century Science: Foundation for Innovation symposium May 31 at the Eric P. Newman Education Center on the School of Medicine campus. Hear the Governor’s speech in its entirety, as well as Chancellor Mark Wrighton’s closing remarks.

Investigators at the School of Medicine have found that eating a low-calorie yet nutritionally balanced diet lowers concentrations of a thyroid hormone called triiodothyronine (T3), which controls the body’s energy balance and cellular metabolism.

After preliminary success using artificial bone to replace degenerative spinal disks in the neck and lower back, neurosurgeons at the School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital are preparing a study to formally compare the performance of the synthetic material against that of real bone.

Despite lack of a key component of the immune system, a line of genetically engineered mice can control chronic herpes virus infections, researchers at the School of Medicine have found. Scientists suspect the missing component has a previously unrecognized backup that fills the void left by its absence. If so, that backup may become a new focus for efforts to design antiviral vaccines.

A program is based on research showing that students who interact with older adults early in their medical training develop better attitudes toward aging. More medical news

Controlling depression, by exercise, activity, cognitive therapy or medication, improves the likelihood that blood glucose will be better controlled in patients with diabetes.

Heart patients who smoke and have implanted defibrillators are much more likely to have the devices jolt their hearts back into normal rhythm than nonsmokers with the devices.

The School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital researchers will receive $300,000 annually for five years to study how infections are acquired in health-care settings.