School of Medicine

In some people smoking rewires the brain, producing a powerful addiction that may never be entirely cured, experts say. An estimated 35 million smokers try to kick the habit each year, but only about 7 percent succeed in remaining smoke-free for more than a year. Most relapse within a few days of quitting and require multiple attempts before they can give up cigarettes. “The people who could quit, quit. Now we’re left with a group of really committed smokers,” explains WUSTL geneticist Laura Bierut in a recent St. Louis Post-Dispatch news article.

Little is understood about how depression makes people feel sad, but neuroscientists do know that the brain chemical serotonin is involved. School of Medicine researchers studied 46 people with active depression and compared positron emission tomography (PET) scans of their brains to scans from 29 people who were not depressed. The team was measuring levels of a particular type of serotonin receptor called the 5-HT2A receptor.

Growing up practically next door to the National Institutes of Health, Alexander W. Dromerick, M.D., became fascinated with science at a young age. But it wasn’t long before he realized that the people behind the science are what ultimately motivate him. His commitment to patient care was further reinforced by his own experience as a […]

Continuing Washington University’s yearlong Sesquicentennial Environmental Initiative, the final set of colloquia will cover significant issues such as tackling childhood lead poisoning, building a sustainable environment in plant sciences, understanding the effect of aerosols in our air; creating ecological and economically viable structures; and understanding how research universities can impact environmental education and public policy.

Washington University’s Mini-Medical School gives laypeople, from husbands and wives to lawyers and musicians, an abridged medical education that helps them to interact more effectively with health-care providers. In a recent St. Louis Post-Dispatch feature on the program, course organizer Dr. Cynthia Wichelman describes WUSTL’s Mini-Med course as one of the most comprehensive and hands-on programs of its kind in the nation. Designed to be fun and educational, the program is open to all comers age 15 and up. “The majority of people who take the class are not going to be the queasy type,” said Wichelman.

For the first time, ophthalmology researchers have demonstrated an association between loss of gel in the eye’s vitreous body and the formation of nuclear cataracts. Click here for more medical articles

Human nuclear cataract (as seen through a slit lamp)Ophthalmology researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a key risk factor for the development of cataracts. For the first time, they have demonstrated an association between loss of gel in the eye’s vitreous body — the gel that lies between the back of the lens and the retina — and the formation of nuclear cataracts, the most common type of age-related cataracts.

WUSTL professors David N. Harris and John C. Morris were among experts commenting in a recent St. Louis Post-Dispatch story on public health implications of the discovery of mad cow disease at a Washington state dairy farm. Harris, who conducts research on prion brain proteins associated with the disease, said that no one yet knows what the protein’s regular function is. Morris, a neurology specialist, said that Great Britain’s experience with the disease suggests that most people who were exposed to tainted meat did not get sick. “It’s undeniable that there is this link (with BSE), and it’s such a scary illness that it overshadows the fact that the individual risk is quite small,” Morris said.

Chest x-ray of a lung affected by pneumoniaMany medical advances involve complicated new technologies or procedures. But Linda Mundy, M.D., associate professor of medicine and an infectious diseases specialist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, recently reported good results with a new pneumonia treatment that can be summed up in a single sentence: Get patients up out of bed earlier and more often, and they check out of the hospital an average of one day sooner. Mundy says the high volume of U.S. pneumonia hospitalizations could make the new treatment a potent cost-saver, but added that a second study of the approach, known as early mobilization, is needed to confirm the beneficial effects.

Image courtesy of William C. Chapman, M.D.William Chapman monitors his surgical instrument’s position on corresponding CT scans during liver surgery.Despite being the largest vital organ in the body, the liver has very few identifiable landmarks to help guide a cancer surgeon around its surface. Two-dimensional ultrasound images currently are the standard navigational tool, making it difficult to discern depth and location in the liver during surgery to remove tumors. That’s why a research team led by William C. Chapman, M.D., professor of surgery and chief of the Abdominal Transplantation Section at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis plans to launch trials examining the use of three-dimensional imaging techniques to complement ultrasound during liver surgery. The research team will investigate standard three-dimensional imaging techniques like MRI, CT scanning and PET for guiding surgeons during tumor removal surgery.