Gutmann

New insight into one of the most common inherited causes of brain tumors may help physicians diagnose and treat the learning disabilities that often accompany the condition, neurofibromotosis 1. The School of Medicine’s David H. Gutmann is the study’s senior author. 

Scientists are eager to make use of stem cells’ extraordinary power to transform into nearly any kind of cell, but that ability also is cause for concern in cancer treatment. New research at the School of Medicine has revealed that these stem cells are present even in slow-growing, less aggressive tumors.

Scientists at the School of Medicine have identified a biological marker that may help predict overall survival of people with deadly brain tumors. The marker is made by noncancerous cells known as monocytes (pictured in brown).

The causes of learning problems associated with an inherited brain tumor disorder are much more complex than scientists had anticipated, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis report.

Insights from a genetic condition that causes brain cancer are helping scientists better understand the most common type of brain tumor in children.

​Stem cells that come from a specific part of the developing brain help fuel the growth of brain tumors caused by an inherited condition, researchers, including David H. Gutmann, MD, PhD, at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis report.

The Washington University Neurofibromatosis (NF) Center at will host its first research symposium May 4. The event will focus on clinical and basic science research on neurofibromatosis 1, an inherited condition that increases risk of brain tumors in children and adults.

Scientists have developed a way to evaluate new treatments for some forms of attention deficit disorder. Working in mice, researchers at the School of Medicine showed that they can use brain scans to quickly test whether drugs increase levels of dopamine. The same group found that raising dopamine levels in mice alleviates attention deficits caused by neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), a condition that affects more than 100,000 people in the United States.

A genetic condition that increases risk of brain tumors may also impair development of the brain system that facilitates attention, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown once again that “ready, fire, aim,” nonsensical though it may sound, can be an essential approach to research.