School of Medicine

Dr. James Lowe in the operating room.Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but plastic and reconstructive surgeons at Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis are trying to learn the basics of aesthetic beauty in various ethnic groups. When plastic surgeons operate, they don’t want to make African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans and other groups look the same. Rather, they hope to preserve ethnicity while at the same time restoring or enhancing beauty. The Washington University team is one of only a handful worldwide that is scientifically studying ways to preserve ethnicity in plastic surgery procedures, and as more people from different ethnic backgrounds seek plastic surgery, defining aesthetic attractiveness in various ethnic groups is becoming more important.

A protein known as Pgp has pumped an imaging agent that glows away from a tumor on the lower right of this mouse.Oncologists dread the appearance of MDR1 P-glycoprotein (Pgp), a protein found on the surface of drug-resistant cancers that pumps away chemotherapy treatments. Now researchers have discovered Pgp also rids cells of a bioluminescent agent used in imaging research. According to David Piwnica-Worms, M.D., Ph.D., professor of molecular biology and pharmacology and of radiology and director of Washington University’s Molecular Imaging Center, the finding means scientists now have a direct, real-time method for assessing treatments designed to block drug resistance in animal models of cancer because if Pgp is present, the imaging agent is expelled from cells, it’s also likely that those cells will be resistant to chemotherapy. On the other hand, the discovery also means basic researchers, who make frequent use of the luminescent imaging agent (derived from a sea pansy or soft coral), have to make sure that what they are seeing isn’t being affected by interactions with Pgp.

A study that included investigators in the School of Medicine is the first to demonstrate an association between a particular gene and alcoholism. Click here for more medical articles

Study participants with optic nerve disease were 20 times more likely to be pathologically sleepy than those with normal sight. Click here for more medical articles

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