School of Medicine

Clinicians who treat AIDS patients may be able to use the HIV protease inhibitor ritonavir to reduce bone loss.

The bacterium responsible for strep throat and other disorders appears to use a single wasplike “stinger” to spread infection.

A biomedical engineer at WUSTL has determined love taps are better than love jolts in addressing defibrillation.When it comes to affairs of the heart, love taps are preferred over love jolts. That is the result of a team of heart researchers including Igor Efimov, Ph.D., associate professor of biomedical engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, trying to effect a better implantable heart defibrillator. Efimov and his colleagues have modeled a system where an implantable heart defibrillator focuses in on rogue electrical waves created during heart arrhythmia and busts up the disturbance, dissipating it and preventing cardiac arrest.

Ritonavir may slow bone loss in AIDS patients.In a collaborative study initiated by their clinical colleagues, scientists at the School of Medicine have shown that the AIDS drug ritonavir suppresses the creation and activity of cells that dismantle bone, potentially slowing bone loss and lowering the risk of osteoporosis in AIDS patients. The findings may encourage clinicians to consider permanently keeping ritonavir or a similar bone-sparing drug in the changing mixture of treatments for AIDS patients.

Studying elderly people with mild to moderately elevated blood pressure, researchers at the School of Medicine have found that exercise is just as effective as blood pressure medicine at reducing heart mass and the thickness of the heart wall. Exercise also provided benefits that blood pressure medicine did not, such as lowering an individual’s risk of developing diabetes.

Surgeons cut and reposition hip bones to reduce pain.When an older person has a hip problem, surgeons often replace the damaged hip with an artificial one. But that’s not a good option for someone in their 20s or 30s, so orthopaedic surgeons at the School of Medicine are repairing damage to the hip to prevent arthritis without having to replace the hip joint.

B cellsScientists at the School of Medicine have identified a protein that can reduce the chances immune B cells will erroneously attack the body’s own tissues, causing autoimmune disorders like lupus, allergies, arthritis and diabetes. The protein is the first of its kind to be identified in B cells and could provide scientists with a new target for treating such conditions.

Using Human Genome Project data, University scientists have identified genetic mutations linked to lung cancer in nonsmokers.

A study, published in the journal Human Molecular Genetics, is the first to identify a specific gene associated with both.

He will be responsible for integrating the department’s medical capabilities to strengthen preparedness and response efforts.