School of Medicine

Researchers report that people with low overall anxiety levels were more apt to ignore symptoms of rectal cancer for long periods of time.

Genetic variations in a specific protein may be a significant cause of human depression, University researchers say.

The researchers found some regular-strength preparations contain as much as 6.5 parts per million of fluoride, well over the 4 ppm maximum allowed.

Photo by Robert BostonUniversity and city officials celebrate the groundbreaking of the nonprofit Center of Research, Technology & Entrepreneurial Exchange.

“This provides confirmation of the potential benefits of plaque-clearing treatments and also gets us rethinking our theories,” says senior author David H. Holtzman. More medical news

Sometimes, the innocence of youth is captured in a moment; other times, in a place. For Abby S. Hollander, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics, that place was — and is — summer camp. While growing up, Hollander spent many summers as a camper and counselor at Camp New Moon, tucked among pine trees in the […]

Carrine Blank/WUSTL PhotoA WUSTL scientist suggests that Cyanobacteria arose in freshwater environments rather than in the sea.A geomicrobiologist at Washington University in St. Louis has proposed that evolution is the primary driving force in the early Earth’s development rather than physical processes, such as plate tectonics. Carrine Blank, Ph.D., Washington University assistant professor of geomicrobiology in the Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences in Arts & Sciences, studying Cyanobacteria – bacteria that use light, water, and carbon dioxide to produce oxygen and biomass – has concluded that these species got their start on Earth in freshwater systems on continents and gradually evolved to exist in brackish water environments, then higher salt ones, marine and hyper saline (salt crust) environments.

David Kilper/WUSTL PhotoProfessor Yoram Rudy (center), with Ph.D. student Yong Wang (left) and post-doctroal fellow Leonid Livshitz (right), with their ECGI system on a mannequin, comment on the cardiac data.Scientists at Washington University in St. Louis have developed the first mathematical model of a canine cardiac cell that incorporates a vital calcium regulatory pathway with implications for life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias, or irregular heartbeats. Thomas J. Hund, Ph.D., post-doctoral researcher in Pathology ( in Dr. Jeffrey Saffitz laboratory) at the Washington University School of Medicine, and Yoram Rudy, The Fred Saigh Distinguished Professor of Engineering at Washington University, have incorporated the Calcium/Calmodulin-dependent Protein Kinase II (CaMKII) regulatory pathway into their model, improving the understanding of the relationship between calcium handling in cardiac cells and the cell’s electrical activity.

About nineteen percent of people have a genetic variation that may increase susceptibility to osteoporosis, a new study reveals. Researchers at the School of Medicine demonstrated that in women the variant gene speeds up the breakdown of estrogen and is associated with low density in the bones of the hip.

Diagram and image from an experiment that proved SARS makes a protein in infected cellsAs public health officials in China brace for a potential resurgence in SARS (Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome) in connection with Chinese New Year on February 9, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have published insights into a new protein that could be an important contributor to the SARS virus’ ability to cause disease and death.