School of Medicine

The virus that causes COVID-19 normally gets inside cells by attaching to a protein called ACE2. School of Medicine researchers have found that a single mutation confers the ability to enter cells through another route.

Regina Abel, an instructor in occupational therapy and in medicine at the School of Medicine, died June 15 in St. Louis following a heart attack. She was 70. An expert in animal-assisted therapy, she focused on animals’ role in rehabilitation and education.

Researchers at the School of Medicine have identified ingredients for snack food prototypes that have been formulated to deliberately change the gut microbiome in ways that can be linked to health.

An investigational Alzheimer’s drug showed mixed results, reducing molecular markers of disease and curbing neurodegeneration, without demonstrating evidence of cognitive benefit, in a clinical trial led by School of Medicine researchers.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine have found that high levels of a normal protein associated with reduced heart disease also protect against Alzheimer’s-like damage in mice, opening up new approaches to slowing or stopping brain damage and cognitive decline in people with Alzheimer’s.

Catherine Lang, professor of physical therapy at the School of Medicine, has been appointed to serve on a national child health council for the Eunice Kennedy Schriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

In the early days of the pandemic, personal protective equipment was in short supply in the U.S., and its availability continues to be a problem globally, leaving health-care workers and their communities exposed. Jennifer DeLaney, MD ’97, has been on a remarkable journey leading a local effort to help.

COVID-19 vaccines rolled out on an unprecedented timetable, but the world is still at risk.

New research at Washington University School of Medicine suggests that many COVID-19 therapies made from combinations of two antibodies are effective against a wide range of variants of the virus.

Carmen R. Bergom, MD, PhD, associate professor of radiation oncology at the School of Medicine, will receive the 2021 Michael Fry Research Award from the Radiation Research Society. The annual award recognizes a junior scientist who has made extraordinary contributions to the field of radiation research.