School of Medicine

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have completed sequencing the genome of Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron, one of the most prevalent bacteria that live in the human intestine. The results appear in the March 28 issue of the journal Science.

Because obesity is a chronic illness, long-term treatment is required to help obese patients make the lifestyle changes to lose weight and keep it off.Almost two-thirds of Americans are either overweight or obese, and that figure is growing — both in size and number. People with medically significant obesity have a body weight that is more than 20 percent above normal. The reason it is called medically significant obesity is that weighing that much puts people at risk for heart disease, diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure and cancer. It also decreases quality of life. Researchers at Washington University’s Weight Management Center help patients lose weight safely and reduce long-term risks of obesity-related diseases by taking a long-term approach. Because obesity is a chronic disease, they believe short-term therapy will not be effective. Just as physicians would not want to treat a diabetic with insulin for four months and then stop the therapy, they say that beating obesity often requires continual care.

Photo by Kimberly LeydigRepresentatives from occupational therapy weigh backpacks to determine if they’re too heavy for children to be carrying.

The Division of Urologic Surgery will host a talk by cancer survivor Richard Howe Nov. 12 at the Eric P. Newman Education Center.

Considered one of the founders of modern psychiatric genetics, “Our institution and psychiatry in general are significantly diminished by his loss.”

Jane Garbutt is directoring the Washington University Pediatric and Adolescent Ambulatory Research Consortium.

A team led by School of Medicine researchers has received a four-year, $2.7 million grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

They made the commitment to honor and thank local physicians with clinical excellence and to encourage teaching that excellence.

Anne H. Cross, M.D., believes anything in life that’s worthwhile is hard. “Like Winston Churchill said, ‘Never give up; never, never, never,’” she says. Cross not only embraces challenges, but she’s also inspired by them. When three of her classmates during medical training developed the debilitating and then-untreatable neurological disease multiple sclerosis (MS), Cross decided […]

Development of a gel-like material might eventually mean the end of bifocals and contact lenses for people who suffer from presbyopia.