School of Medicine

WUSM researchers have developed a diagnostic tool for identifying pathological gambling disorder.More than 80 percent of the U.S. population gambles at some time in their lives. It might be the lottery, bingo or poker. Most never need treatment for problem gambling, but others lose control and lose their houses or cars and damage family relationships as a result of compulsive gambling. Little is known about why people gamble and how to predict who is likely to become a pathological gambler, but Washington University researchers have developed a diagnostic tool for identifying pathological gambling disorder, and they’re beginning to learn who is at risk.

Structure of the fatty acid receptor CD36As you stand at buffet tables during holiday parties this year, it might cheer you up to know most people don’t gain as much weight over the holidays as once was thought. Instead of five or 10 pounds, most of us actually gain only a pound or two. But it might depress you to know that weight gain happens one pound at a time, and in the long run, it may be hard to avoid — especially for some of us, because some of the taste buds in our tongues are programmed to make us crave fatty food — and fat is everywhere in our diets. French researchers recently reported that mice have a receptor in their tongues that can sense fat, and the presence of that receptor seems to drive the mice to crave fat in their diets. The research was based on work from scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, where investigators previously had identified a protein receptor for fat and documented its function in recognizing and using fatty food.

Mania can be confused with ADHD.Child psychiatry researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a small group of preschoolers who appear to suffer from bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive illness. In findings presented this fall to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the researchers reported they had identified key symptoms that distinguish bipolar disorder from other problems in very young children. Diagnosing bipolar disorder in childhood can be difficult because the manic phase of the illness can be confused with the more common attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The confusion arises because mania and ADHD both involve hyperactivity, irritability and distractibility.

The Department of Psychiatry at the School of Medicine is hosting a program on strategies to help patients with treatment resistant depression.

The Story Link program lets prisoners talk to their children via cassette tapes.Thousands of Missouri inmates have been given a chance to reconnect with their children thanks to a volunteer program led by WUSM’s Dana and Jane Abendschein. The Story Link program allows inmates to record messages and children’s stories onto a cassette, which is then mailed to their families. For many inmates, it’s the only form of communication they have with their children.

By peering into the minds of volunteers preparing to play a brief visual game, neuroscientists at the School of Medicine have found they can predict whether the volunteers will succeed or fail at the game.

EllenbergerThomas Ellenberger, D.V.M., Ph.D., has been named the Raymond H. Wittcoff Professor and head of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at the School of Medicine.

The School of Medicine will receive $5.9 million over the course of five years to begin an ambitious and potentially decades-long search for the earliest signs that a seemingly normal person may someday develop Alzheimer’s disease.

Researchers at the Genome Sequencing Center (GSC) at the School of Medicine will lead the sequencing of the genome of maize, more popularly known to consumers as corn. The National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Energy allocated a total of $32 million for sequencing maize. The GSC maize genome project will receive $29.5 million of that funding.

A combination of brain scanning with a new imaging agent and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis has left neuroscientists encouraged that they may finally be moving toward techniques for diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease before its clinical symptoms become apparent.