School of Medicine

Preliminary studies have shown that almost 50 percent of people who experience uncontrolled asthma symptoms have a chronic airway infection that they aren’t aware of. Now researchers at the School of Medicine are testing to see if treatment with an antibiotic will ease asthma symptoms in these patients.

If you’ve regularly been coughing, wheezing or short of breath, you may want to get tested for asthma at the Saint Louis Science Center on Saturday, May 20. As part of a nationwide program, Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital physicians will be at the Science Center to test lung function and answer questions about asthma. The screenings are free.

Treating young children at high risk for asthma for two years with an inhaled steroid continually decreased asthma-like symptoms but did not prevent the disease after the medication was stopped, a study involving researchers at the School of Medicine shows.

Listed below are this month’s featured news stories. • Diabetes and depression (week of May 3) • Lessen frailty by losing weight (week of May 10) • Smokers get more jolts (week of May 17) • Sunscreen is more than just SPF (week of May 24) • Tumor location doesn’t really matter (week of May 31)

Vicki L. Friedman of the School of Medicine’s MedPIC department helps facilitate the “Arts as Healing” art therapy program for Siteman Cancer Center patients and their families.

There is good news for women who may not want to take a breast cancer drug because of the risks of developing more serious diseases.

Researchers at the School of Medicine are the first to identify a mutated gene that gives insight into kidney failure in human infants. More medical news

A program designed to promote multidisciplinary collaboration in clinical research has named its first group of scholars.

ZebrafishTo learn more about how glucose affects human development, Washington University researchers have developed the first vertebrate model of the role of glucose in embryonic brain development. The model is made up of zebrafish. Their transparent embryos develop similarly to humans, except that they grow outside of the mother’s body, where development can be more easily observed. The model provides the foundation for and insight into the roles of nutrition and genetics in human birth defects. The research also may have implications for patients with neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s. More…

Patrick Lustman meets with a patient.A team of researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has found that an antidepressant medication may reduce the risk of recurrent depression and increase the length of time between depressive episodes in patients with diabetes. Controlling depression in diabetes is important in helping patients manage their blood sugar. As depression improves, glucose levels also tend to improve. Although depression affects about 5 percent of the general population, the rate is about 25 percent for patients with diabetes. More…