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Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis

spinal cord injury
Health

Engineered immune cell therapy for central nervous system injury

Ashwini Sakharkar

Mouse study shows engineered immune cell therapy protects damaged neurons.

Brain science intelligence
Health

Neurons help to flush out waste from the brain during sleep

Dr. Prajakta Banik

Neuronal dynamics guide brain waste clearance for Cerebrospinal fluid perfusion.

Lipid deposits
Neuroscience

Link found between Cholesterol and Alzheimer’s-like brain damage in mice

Amit Malewar

Targeting cholesterol potentially could help treat Alzheimer’s, related dementias.

Image showing crayfish
Health

Fiber from crustaceans, insects, and mushrooms aids digestion

Dr. Prajakta Banik

A stomach immune circuit handles chitin-rich diets in mammals.

Transplant surgeon Adeel Khan, MD, controls a surgical robot.
Robotics

Surgeons perform the first successful robotic liver transplant in the U.S.

Ashwini Sakharkar

This extends to liver transplants the advantages of minimally invasive robotic surgery.

Image showing multiple myeloma.
Health

A drug may improve stem cell transplantation for multiple myeloma patients

Vidya Nagalwade

The drug could change standard care.

Image showing intestinal cells.
Health

The new approach focuses on norovirus, the world’s leading cause of foodborne infection

Vidya Nagalwade

Dual vaccine generates antibodies against diarrhea-causing viruses.

Image showing virus in the human body
Health

The blood plasma of COVID-19 patients shows who is most likely to become very ill

Vidya Nagalwade

Proteins may help predict which patients need ventilators and die of the virus.

Image showing covid19 mask
Health

Covid-19 boosters may be necessary to keep the virus in check

Dr. Prajakta Banik

To be effective, boosters should target variants widely different from the COVID-19 virus's original strain

Image showing brain illustration
Health

T cells’ role in Alzheimer’s suggests a new treatment strategy

Vidya Nagalwade

Drug development possibilities for brain diseases linked to tau protein.

Eric J. Lenze, MD, holds an antidepressant drug in one hand and aripiprazole
Health

Adding meds to an antidepressant may help older adults with treatment-resistant depression

Vidya Nagalwade

For some patients, two different medications are better than antidepressants alone.

The addition of a magenta tracer molecule illustrates the flow of fluid around the brain
Science

The disrupted flow of brain fluid may underlie neurodevelopmental disorders

Vidya Nagalwade

New imaging technique reveals circulation patterns in the developing brain.

Image showing Cells
Science

A framework to understand the actual events within individual living cells

Pranjal Malewar

Beyond the average cell.

low white blood cell counts
Health

Brain cancer patients may benefit from treatment to boost white blood cells

Pranjal Malewar

Blocking immune suppressor cells in mice with glioblastoma improved survival.

movements of stem cells
Health

Dry eye disease alters how the eye’s cornea heals itself after injury

Pranjal Malewar

Mouse study IDs gene and proteins that could be targeted for therapy.

Image showing Covid-19 vaccine
Health

Study explains what makes mRNA vaccines so effective against COVID-19

Pranjal Malewar

Shots trigger exceptional antibody response by activating key helper immune cells.

Image is the artistic impression of red planet
Space

Mars may be just too small to be habitable

Amit Malewar

Mars habitability is limited by its small size.

Immune system protein may defend against deadly necrotizing enterocolitis in infants
Health

Immune system protein may defend against deadly necrotizing enterocolitis in infants

Pranjal Malewar

Findings may lead to new therapies for necrotizing enterocolitis.

CT scan
Health

Delaying lung cancer surgery increase the risk of recurrence and mortality

Pranjal Malewar

Patients who undergo operation within 12 weeks of diagnosis fare better.

Fungus found in foods can infect sites of intestinal damage, study
Health

Fungus found in foods can infect sites of intestinal damage, study

Pranjal Malewar

Foodborne fungus impairs intestinal wound healing in Crohn’s disease.

A heat map of the brain of a person
Science

A novel form of Alzheimer’s protein discovered

Pranjal Malewar

Discovery could lead to better diagnostics, speed efforts to find treatment.

the activity of certain neurons in the brain leads directly to the choice of one option over another
Science

How brain neurons influence choices?

Pranjal Malewar

The effort could aid the study of addiction, eating disorders, other neuropsychiatric conditions that involve faulty decision-making.

molecular structure of an antibody bound to a protein from influenza B virus
Health

Scientists identified two antibodies that protect against influenza B virus strains

Ashwini Sakharkar

Findings point the way to developing a broad-spectrum flu drug,

Neurons
Science

The immune system affects the mind and body

Pranjal Malewar

Immune cells produce molecule that influences vigilance, alertness in mice.

Boosting immunity could be a potential treatment strategy for COVID-19
Health

Boosting immunity could be a potential treatment strategy for COVID-19

Pranjal Malewar

Scientists find weakened, rather than hyperactive, immunity in response to the virus.

Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found that gene therapy in mice helped build strength and significant muscle mass quickly, while reducing the severity of osteoarthritis. The gene therapy also prevented obesity, even when the mice were fed a high-fat diet.
Health

Study suggests effective fat-reducing therapy

Pranjal Malewar

Scientists at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis believe that gene therapy could one day be used as fat-reducing therapy. In a...

ubes of green fluorescent protein glow more brightly when they contain more of the protein. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine have found a way to increase protein production up to a thousandfold, a discovery that could aid production of proteins used in the medical, food, agriculture, chemical and other industries. (Image: Sergej Djuranovic/Washington University School of Medicine)
Invention

Supercharging protein production

Ashwini Sakharkar

Discovery promises to aid the production of protein-based drugs, vaccines, other biomaterials.

White blood cells (blue) attack two Klebsiella bacteria (pink) in this colorized scanning electron microscopic image. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the biotech startup VaxNewMo have developed a vaccine that is effective, in mice, against hypervirulent strains of Klebsiella that can cause life-threatening infections in healthy adults. (Photo: David Dorward/NIAID)
Health

Scientists produced effective vaccine against Klebsiella pneumoniae

Pranjal Malewar

Life-threatening bacterial infections are spreading.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have discovered clues to a particularly deadly form of rejection that can follow lung transplantation. Called antibody-mediated rejection, the condition remains impervious to available treatments and difficult to diagnose. The researchers have identified, in mice, a process that may prevent the condition and lead to possible therapies to treat it.
Health

New clues discovered to lung transplant rejection

Pranjal Malewar

Lung transplantation often remains the only viable option for improving the survival of patients with end-stage lung disease. This condition can be brought on by...

Radiation oncologist Julie Schwarz, MD, PhD, (right) and staff scientist Ramachandran Rashmi and their colleagues exploited cancer cell metabolism to kill cervical tumors that are resistant to standard chemotherapy and radiation
Health

New study to prevent cervical cancer fuel supply stymies tumors

Editorial Team

Recently researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have demonstrated that cervical tumors that don’t respond to radiation may be vulnerable...

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