School of Medicine

Photo by Robert BostonAn art show Nov. 18 at the Bernard Becker Medical Library’s King Center benefitted the Center of Creative Arts’ Urban Arts Program in St. Louis.

Alcohol and drug abuse remain the biggest problems among homeless individuals.The homeless population is changing. In the days of the Great Depression, many homeless people were victims of bad luck and a worse economy. But after studying St. Louis’ homeless population since the 1980’s, experts at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis say the problem has become more complex in recent times.

Salmonella entericaEvery year in developing nations, typhoid fever infects more than 16 million people and kills more than half a million. Researchers hoping to reduce this heavy toll have an important new tool: completed genomes for the two bacteria that are the leading causes of typhoid fever.

Red jungle fowlThe first detailed analysis of the chicken genome has identified a chicken counterpart to an important human immune system protein, revised scientists’ assessment of the chicken’s sense of smell, and suggested that the chicken, long used to study gene activity in the earliest stages of life, may provide a good model for studying changes in DNA linked to aging and death.

On their backs is the safest way for babies to sleep. Babies who never sleep on their stomachs don’t learn behaviors that may lessen their risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), researchers at the School of Medicine have found. Even so, the researchers caution that infants should always be placed on their backs to sleep.

The University’s cardiothoracic surgeons are dedicated to providing a second opinion within 48 hours of receiving medical records. More medical articles

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded an additional $1.8 million to the Midwest Regional Center of Excellence in Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases Research (MRCE), a multi-institutional research center anchored at WUSM.

It has generated enough profit in just seven years to contribute $1 million in royalty payments back to the School of Medicine. More medical articles

A new postage stamp aims to increase awareness and educate the public about sickle cell disease and to encourage early testing.

Medical school researchers helping the improvement of miniscule particles can detect the beginning stages of clogged arteries in animals.