Aspiring physicians honor medical faculty, residents, staff (Links to an external site)

Medical student Yupeng Liu, representing the Class of 2024, presents a Distinguished Service Teaching Award to Colleen Wallace, MD, March 1 on the Medical Campus.

Recognizing excellence and dedication in medical education during a time of unprecedented challenges, students at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis recently honored faculty, residents and staff with Distinguished Service Teaching Awards for the 2020-21 academic year.

Poverty, crime linked to differences in newborns’ brains (Links to an external site)

Scanning the brains of newborns, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that maternal exposure to poverty and crime can influence the structure and function of young brains even before babies make their entrances into the world. Here, the university's Lourdes Bernardez prepares an infant for an MRI scan as part of ongoing research.

Poverty and crime can have devastating effects on a child’s health. But a new study from researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggests that some environmental factors influence the structure and function of young brains even before babies make their entrances into the world.

Serendipity unites physicians, researchers, families to fight rare genetic disease in kids (Links to an external site)

Ayden Isaacs, 15, (middle) walks along the Mississippi River in St. Louis County with his mother, Jennifer Isaacs, and his father, Michael Isaacs. Ayden Isaacs was diagnosed with DNMT3A Overgrowth Syndrome in 2015 at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Children and young adults with the rare genetic disease may have physical and intellectual disabilities and an increased risk for blood cancers, including acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Ayden’s clinical samples have helped researchers learn more about his condition and AML.

In 2008, a team of scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis became the first to decode the DNA of a patient’s cancer cells and trace the disease to its genetic roots. The patient, a woman in her 50s, suffered from acute myeloid leukemia (AML), an aggressive and often deadly cancer of […]

Department of Pediatrics names 2 new vice chairs (Links to an external site)

The Department of Pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has named pediatricians Jason Newland, MD, (left) and Cassandra “Casey” M. Pruitt, MD, to the newly created roles of vice chair of community health and strategic planning, and vice chair of outpatient health, respectively. The physicians treat patients at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.

The Department of Pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has named pediatricians Jason Newland, MD, and Cassandra “Casey” M. Pruitt, MD, to the newly created roles of vice chair of community health and strategic planning, and vice chair of outpatient health, respectively. The physicians treat patients at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.

New way viruses trigger autoimmunity discovered (Links to an external site)

Roseolovirus particles emerge from an infected immune cell (above). Studying mice, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have discovered that roseolovirus can trigger autoimmunity in a previously unknown way: by disrupting the process by which immune cells learn to avoid targeting their own body's cells and tissues.

Autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and Type 1 diabetes are thought to arise when people with a genetic susceptibility to autoimmunity encounter something in the environment that triggers their immune systems to attack their own bodies. Scientists have made progress in identifying genetic factors that put people at risk, but the environmental triggers have […]

Antibiotic doesn’t prevent future wheezing in babies hospitalized with RSV (Links to an external site)

Antibiotics provide no benefit in preventing future recurrent wheezing in babies hospitalized with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), according to a new study led by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. And there is some evidence that antibiotics may make wheezing worse.

The antibiotic azithromycin has anti-inflammatory properties that can be beneficial in some chronic lung diseases, such as cystic fibrosis. With that in mind, researchers investigated its potential to prevent future recurrent wheezing among infants hospitalized with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). With such babies at increased risk of developing asthma later in childhood, the scientists hoped […]

CDC director to speak about pandemic March 3 on Medical Campus (Links to an external site)

The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Washington University alum Rochelle P. Walensky, MD, will participate in a conversation about the pandemic Thursday, March 3, from 8 to 9 a.m. at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The event will be available to watch via livestream.

The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Rochelle P. Walensky, MD, will participate in a conversation about the pandemic Thursday, March 3, from 8 to 9 a.m. at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The virtual event, available via livestream, will be geared toward faculty, staff, students and trainees on the […]

Gift to help SLCH, WashU develop care model to improve kids’ behavioral health (Links to an external site)

A $15 million gift from Bob and Signa Hermann will help establish the Hermann Center for Child and Family Development, housed within the Children’s Discovery Institute, a partnership between St. Louis Children’s Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. A key aim of the center will be to adopt a transgenerational approach to reducing the burden of serious behavioral health conditions of childhood.

St. Louis Children’s Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are tackling the issue of behavioral health support that has emerged as a leading health concern in our country — for people of all ages. The challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic have revealed the number of children suffering and how few resources are […]

Researchers unravel omicron’s secrets to better understand COVID-19 (Links to an external site)

In two recent studies, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found evidence that the omicron variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 causes less severe disease than previous variants — at least in rodents — but that many antibody-based therapies may not be effective against it. (Image: Getty Images)

When South African scientists announced in November that they had identified a new variant of the virus that causes COVID-19, they also reported two worrying details: one, that this new variant’s genome was strikingly different from that of any previous variant, containing dozens of mutations compared with the original virus that emerged in 2019; and […]