School of Medicine

The MRI scans on the left show normal gray matter. The two on the right are abnormal.A Washington University pediatrician at St. Louis Children’s Hospital has found that performing MRI scans on pre-term infants’ brains assists dramatically in predicting the babies’ future developmental outcomes. Researchers studied 167 preterm infants in New Zealand and Australia and at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. The findings are a breakthrough because previous technology — cranial ultrasounds — did not show the abnormalities in the infants’ brains.

Asthmatx illustrationA bronchoscope delivers thermal energy to airways during a bronchial thermoplasty treatment.Researchers at the School of Medicine are seeking participants for the AIR2 (Asthma Interventional Research) international, multi-center clinical trial, which explores whether a new asthma treatment improves asthma care. The trial, the first test of the procedure in the U.S., focuses on a procedure called bronchial thermoplasty to treat asthma.

Abnormal blood vessels and hemorrhage under the retina in wet macular degenerationAlthough some recent studies have suggested that inflammation promotes retinal damage in age-related macular degeneration (AMD), new work from Washington University ophthalmology researchers has found that a particular type of inflammation, regulated by cells called macrophages, actually protects the eye from damage due to AMD.

Photo by Robert Boston Jean Audrain in the Department of Internal Medicine receives the Dean’s Distinguished Service Award from Larry J. Shapiro, M.D., executive vice chancellor and dean of the School of Medicine.

Pancreatic tumors can hide from the body’s immune surveillance by surrounding themselves with cells that act like Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak.

Susan Dutcher, Ph.D., has been named interim head of the James S. McDonnell Department of Genetics at the School of Medicine.

Junior faculty initiating new cancer research projects are eligible for up to $20,000 in seed money.

New research at the School of Medicine shows that the earlier a deaf infant or toddler receives a cochlear implant, the better his or her spoken language skills at age 3 and a half.

Skip Virgin, M.D., Ph.D., has been named head of the Department of Pathology and Immunology at the School of Medicine, succeeding Emil R. Unanue, M.D.

A 16-year-old can walk again after Susan Mackinnon, M.D., chief of the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, happened to be in the right place at the right time.