Medicine & Health

Jeffrey I. Gordon, MD, at the School of Medicine, has been named this year’s recipient of the Dr. Paul Janssen Award for Biomedical Research.

Christine O’Brien, at the McKelvey School of Engineering, and her team have received a $20,000 prize from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)’s Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics Technology for Maternal Health Challenge.

What changes and trends could we see this year? WashU experts in areas from artificial intelligence to climate to fashion share their insights.

A School of Medicine study may help explain how excess weight can contribute to diabetes and may provide researchers with a target to help prevent or delay diabetes in some of those at risk. The findings suggest that many people with elevated levels of insulin also have defects in an enzyme important to the processing of a key fatty acid.

A study, in mice, from the School of Medicine, suggests that the bacterium Acinetobacter can hide undetected in bladder cells and then reactivate when stimulated by medical intervention. The findings suggest that patients may bring the bacterium into hospitals.

Studying mice, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine have found that proteins made by stem cells to help regenerate the cornea may become new targets for treating and preventing injuries to the cornea related to dry eye disease.

A nasal COVID-19 vaccine based on technology licensed from Washington University in St. Louis has been approved for emergency use in India as a booster for people who have already received two doses of other COVID-19 vaccines.

A study involving School of Medicine researchers supports the idea that some T cells that react to microbes also may react to normal human proteins, causing autoimmune disease. The findings promise to accelerate efforts to improve diagnostic tools and treatments for autoimmune diseases.

School of Medicine scientists have shown that the cancer therapy known as CAR-T can be applied to multiple sclerosis (MS), an autoimmune disease of the nervous system. The findings extend the powerful tool of immunotherapy to autoimmune diseases, a class of diseases that are often debilitating and difficult to treat.

A research team that includes School of Medicine and pharmacy scientists has altered the chemical properties of fentanyl. The research holds promise for developing safer opioid drugs that still relieve pain.