School of Medicine

Why do some people live longer?Researchers at the School of Medicine will head an ambitious study of people who live exceptionally long and healthy lives to identify the factors that account for their longevity. A team led by Michael Province, Ph.D., professor of biostatistics and genetics, received a $4 million grant from the National Institute on Aging to establish a Data Management and Coordinating Center for the Exceptional Longevity Family Study.

The findings might open the door to new ways to treat numerous afflictions, including Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and Lou Gehrig’s diseases.

The group will address ways to redesign health insurance benefits, payment and performance improvement programs.

Scientists studying Helicobacter pylori have uncovered new intricacies in the way the bacterium sticks to humans’ stomach lining.

He will also serve as chief of the Adult Reconstructive Surgery Service for the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery.

During his pediatric emergency medicine fellowship, David M. Jaffe was struck by a news story that would forever impact his career. One summer afternoon in 1976, 26 kids riding a school bus were hijacked at gunpoint on a rural road in Chowchilla, Calif. They were taken to a quarry and entombed in a sweltering moving […]

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are seeking women who have had two or more unexplained first trimester miscarriages to evaluate an experimental treatment to help women carry babies to term.

Backpacks are intended for convenience, but they can also be a source of pain for children who lug them around. Thousands of kids report injuries due to backpacks each year. Overloaded packs and improper usage are often the culprits in these injuries. Matthew Dobbs, a WUSM pediatrician at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, outlines the risks of wearing a backpack and preventative measures that can be taken in the following St. Louis Post-Dispatch article.

A national team of investigators led by psychiatric geneticists at the School of Medicine has identified a gene that appears to be linked to both alcoholism and depression. The study, published in the September issue of the journal Human Molecular Genetics, is the first to identify a specific gene associated with both depression and alcoholism.

Extending outpatient rehabilitation by six months helps elderly patients more fully recover, according to the first controlled study of its kind.