allergies

​For freshmen with food allergies, the college dining hall can be a dangerous place. Connie Diekman, director of university nutrition at Washington University in St. Louis and a leading national expert, encourages new students to enlist campus dietitian and food service providers to help them stay safe.​

A molecule involved in asthma and allergies has now been shown to make mice resistant to skin cancer, according to Raphael Kopan, PhD, and his colleagues at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, including Michael Holtzman, MD, have received an $8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study the role of the barrier functions of the skin, gut, and airway in asthma and allergic diseases. Understanding the role of the epithelial cells in these tissues may help prevent and treat respiratory illnesses in the future, the researchers say.

Dr. Mario Castro and nurse Michelle Jenkerson visit with patient Wil Klages and his mom, Peg Klages.Studying Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) to learn what puts children at risk for the most severe infections, Washington University researchers at St. Louis Children’s Hospital found that a child’s age at the time of infection and whether that child lives with a smoker could mean the difference between the sniffles and the intensive care unit.

Dr. Mario Castro and nurse Michelle Jenkerson visit with patient Wil Klages and his mom, Peg Klages.Studying Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) to learn what puts children at risk for the most severe infections, Washington University researchers at St. Louis Children’s Hospital found that a child’s age at the time of infection and whether that child lives with a smoker could mean the difference between the sniffles and the intensive care unit.