School of Medicine

Researchers studying a mouse model of neurofibromatosis 1 (NF1), a genetic condition that causes childhood brain tumors, have found their second new drug target in a year, a protein called methionine aminopeptidase-2 (MetAP2).

Scientists have known for decades that female lab mice or their pheromones cause male lab mice to make ultrasonic vocalizations. But a new paper from researchers at the School of Medicine establishes for the first time that the utterances of the male mice are songs.

Soon it will be possible for twice as many underserved women to be screened for breast cancer because of a grant to Dione Farria, M.D., and Katherine Jahnige Mathews, M.D., of the Siteman Cancer Center at the School of Medicine.

An international team of scientists this week published the first complete draft of a map of human genetic variability, known to scientists as the human haplotype map or HapMap. The HapMap pushes biomedical science a large step closer to the era when analysis of patient DNA will provide important guidance to diagnosis and treatment.

By comparing genetic data of superbly healthy individuals to those of cancer patients, scientists at the School of Medicine hope to unlock the secrets to long, healthy lives. They’re looking to develop a blood test to detect potential tumors before they begin. Learn more about the WUSM cancer genetics research led by Paul Goodfellow in this St. Louis Post-Dispatch article.

Alex Evers (left) examines proteins with colleague Joe Henry Steinbach.Alex S. Evers of the School of Medicine has been elected to the prestigious Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors medical scientists in the United States can receive. Evers was honored for his professional achievement in the health sciences, specifically in the area of anesthesiology.

A molecule that has long been an obstacle to cancer chemotherapy and drug treatments for brain disorders may soon become an ally in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease, according to researchers at the School of Medicine and the University of Rochester.

TeitelbaumSteven Teitelbaum, professor of pathology and immunology, was one of several experts invited to testify before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee, chaired by Senator Arlen Specter, regarding the benefits of stem cell research. Read Teitelbaum’s testimony here.

A drug potentially able to prevent breast cancer in high-risk women is the subject of a new clinical study at the School of Medicine. The drug, called exemestane, belongs to a new class of breast-cancer drugs called aromatase inhibitors.

An international team of researchers has partially untangled the genetic details of a mysterious disorder that formerly caused seizures and death in infant boys within a month of birth.