School of Medicine

Kidney recipient Barry Hammond (left) and his brother, kidney donor Brian.More than 50,000 people in the United States are waiting for kidney transplants. Most are waiting for someone who wants to be an organ donor to die, but each year only 9,000 people on the transplant waiting list get a kidney from someone who has died, while 16,500 on the list die. Transplants from living donors have the greatest chance of working for a long time and can happen quickly, often within a year. A living kidney donor may be a family member or friend between the ages of 18 and 65. They must be healthy and have a blood type that is compatible with the recipient’s blood type. But researchers at Washington University School of Medicine, have discovered something surprising. Many interested kidney donors are not taken up on their offers to donate because the recipients are afraid donors will be harmed. As a result, many potential donor kidneys go unused.

Heavy drinking is associated with a number of problems, but one surprisingly common problem involves not remembering large chunks of time. Called alcohol-induced blackouts, these memory losses were reported by more than 39 percent of women and more than 50 percent of men studied by researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the Queensland Institute on Medical Research in Australia. The researchers also found that genetic factors play a big role in whether or not a person blacks out after heavy drinking. Studying more than 2,300 pairs of Australian twins, the research team was able to determine that more than 50 percent of the risk of blacking out seems to be controlled by genetic factors, and the role of genes is even greater in people who report blacking out multiple times.

A team of scientists reports a major advance in seqencing large genomes.A team of scientists that includes a Washington University in St. Louis biologist, has evaluated and validated a gene-enrichment strategy for genome sequencing and has reported a major advance in sequencing large genomes. The team showed a six-fold reduction of the effective size of the Zea mays (maize or corn) genome while creating a four-fold increase in the gene identification rate when compared to standard whole-genome sequencing methods.

To meet design and cost changes, industry and government are considering clockless computing.Computing royalty, including Ivan Sutherland, the father of computer graphics, and Wesley A. Clark, the designer of the world’s first personal computer, will gather at a computing symposium Friday, March 26th, 2004, from 1:00-5:30 p.m. at Washington University in St. Louis’s Whitaker Hall Auditorium. As part of the University’s 150th anniversary of its founding, participants will honor time by contemplating how computing can evade time as the industry prepares to go clockless.

Strong stitches attach the rotator cuff directly to the shoulder bone.Each year in the United States, nearly 300,000 people have surgery to repair their rotator cuff. The rotator cuff is made up of several muscles that allow us to lift our arms or to rotate them during sports activities such as golf, tennis and swimming. The rotator cuff also is used during lifting, washing windows and working in the garden. In the past, surgical correction of the rotator cuff involved an incision through the deltoid muscle on the outside of the shoulder, a lot of pain for weeks after surgery and a long period of recovery. But Washington University orthopaedic surgeons have begun using a minimally invasive system that eliminates the need for the incision through the muscle and limits the amount of post-operative pain. The system allows surgeons to strengthen the repair with a suturing device that sews the muscle right into bone where it can heal more quickly, with less pain.

James W. Ellis, the National Law Journal‘s 2002 Lawyer of the Year, will deliver the keynote address during the School of Law’s fourth annual Access to Equal Justice conference, “Mental Health and the Law,” March 19 in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom of Anheuser-Busch Hall.

Washington University faculty and staff make news around the world. Following is a representative sampling of media coverage from clippings and electronic sources. For the most recent clips, see the Clips Index

Washington University faculty and staff make news around the world. Following is a representative sampling of media coverage from clippings and electronic sources.

Animal studies also indicate that brief exposure to small amounts of anesthetic drugs can trigger “significant nerve cell death,” researchers report. Click here for more medical articles

Passionate, dedicated and driven only begin to describe Fiona H. Levy, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics. As the medical director of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, Levy oversees a multidisciplinary team that cares for critically ill children and infants. “I have been given the opportunity to make a difference […]