Arthur L. Prensky, MD, a professor emeritus of neurology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, died Monday, June 16, 2025, after a short illness. He was 94. Over his 45-year career, Prensky became a world authority in metabolic disorders, headache and neurodevelopment. “Arthur was one of the most brilliant minds in neurology,” […]
A recent study published in JAMA Ophthalmology sheds light on the correlation between the diagnosis of primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) and the mental health decline in patients who were previously diagnosed with ocular hypertension. Conducted as part of the Ocular Hypertension Treatment Study, this research underscores the imperative need for a more sensitive approach in delivering such […]
Andrew S. Yoo, PhD, the Phil and Sima Needleman Distinguished Professor of Developmental Biology, and Zhao Sun, PhD, a staff scientist in Yoo’s laboratory, both of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, were awarded the second annual Jeffrey L. Morby Prize from Cure Alzheimer’s Fund, a nonprofit that supports research to prevent, slow or […]
Martin Mwita Jr.’s symptoms started when he was just an infant, with painful swelling of his hands and feet, often one of the first manifestations of sickle cell disease. By the time he was a year old, he had been hospitalized multiple times due to the illness. At just 19 months, he suffered strokes and […]
Preterm birth complications are the primary cause of death among children under age 5, and nearly 75% could be prevented with interventions, according to the World Health Organization. While the causes leading to preterm birth are largely unknown, an interdisciplinary research team at Washington University in St. Louis has found that variability in sleep patterns […]
A WashU researcher says “criticality” is the key to understanding how the brain works — and how to keep it free from Alzheimer’s and other diseases.
A new AI-based technology that rapidly maps the brain to locate sensitive areas that control speech, vision, movement and other critical functions has received authorization from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), enabling it to be marketed to hospitals with the aim of enhancing the precision of neurosurgeries. The technology was developed by researchers and […]
One of the most common surgical complications is postoperative pain that persists long after the surgical incision has healed, striking anywhere between 10% and 35% of the estimated 300 million people worldwide who undergo surgery yearly. The reason for this post-surgical pain remains unclear. The tangle of risk factors can be difficult to parse. Pain […]
Dimitrios Mathios, MD, an assistant professor of neurosurgery at WashU Medicine, has devised a method that uses machine learning to detect brain tumors by analyzing DNA patterns associated with cancer in the blood. In a recent study, Mathios found that this machine-learning technique detected cancer in 73% of cases from a cohort drawn from patients […]
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have received an $11.85 million grant to create a resource for the WashU and national research communities to study the growing number of neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders known to be caused by a single gene mutation. Funded by the National Institute of Mental Health of […]
Alexander Chamessian, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of anesthesiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been named a 2025 recipient of the Rita Allen Foundation Scholars Award in Pain. He is one of two early-career leaders recognized this year by the foundation for research that demonstrates the potential to uncover new pathways to understand and […]
Recipients of the Dean’s Impact Awards represent the compassion, innovation, and commitment required to build dynamic, meaningful, and community-focused efforts to improve clinical care, education, and research. Through this recognition of colleagues, we thank each of the Dean’s Impact Award winners for all they have done through dedicated service to our patients, our learners and […]
Jennifer E. Phillips-Cremins, PhD, an international leader in understanding 3D genome structure and how it affects brain development and neurological diseases, has been named a BJC Investigator at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Phillips-Cremins will join the Department of Genetics as the James McDonnell Professor and have a dual appointment in the Department of Neuroscience. […]
In a five-year grant renewal, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded $18.5 million to a multi-institutional team that includes Benjamin Garcia, PhD, the Raymond H. Wittcoff Distinguished Professor and head of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at WashU Medicine, to support the development of new methods of detecting genetic elements that promote the […]
Opioid overdoses are a major public health issue in the U.S., killing tens of thousands of people every year. The medicine naloxone, which is available as an over-the-counter nasal spray or given by injection, has saved countless lives by rapidly reversing opioid overdoses. But in blocking opioid receptors in the brain, naloxone causes severe withdrawal […]
At the Washington University in St. Louis Board of Trustees meeting May 2, numerous faculty members were appointed, promoted or granted tenure, with tenure effective July 1 unless otherwise indicated. Appointment with tenure Joanna L. Jankowsky as a professor of neuroscience at the School of Medicine (effective May 2) Sepehr Shahshahani as a professor of law at […]
Jason Yi’s latest grant has a championship pedigree. Yi, PhD, an assistant professor of neuroscience at WashU Medicine, has received a $400,000 pilot grant from the Eagles Autism Foundation to advance a new approach to treating autism spectrum disorder. The nonprofit, which was established by Jeffrey Lurie, owner of the Super Bowl LIX-winning Philadelphia Eagles, is dedicated to raising […]
Tom Franken, MD, PhD, sheds new light on how the brain parses complex visual input with two recently published studies. The papers in iScience and Neuron deepen the knowledge of how border ownership (BOS) neurons assign borders to foreground objects and how this aids in predicting future visual input. A better understanding of these processes could eventually help unravel […]
A common sleep aid restores healthier sleep patterns and protects mice from the brain damage seen in neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease, according to new research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The drug, lemborexant, prevents the harmful buildup of an abnormal form of a protein called tau in the brain, […]
Hong Chen, PhD, associate professor of biomedical engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering and of neurosurgery at Washington University School of Medicine, has been elected a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA). The association’s fellows are individuals who have made significant advances in the field of acoustics. Chen was elected for her contributions […]
The Bouchet Graduate Honor Society, established in 2005 by Yale University and Howard University, recognizes outstanding scholarly achievement and promotes excellence in doctoral education and the professoriate. WashU recently inducted five doctoral candidates and five postdoctoral fellows. This is the second year that the university has nominated postdoctoral fellows for induction into the society. Inductees […]
As more U.S. cities debate whether to remove fluoride from their water systems, public health experts at the Prevention Research Center (PRC) at Washington University in St. Louis are providing clear, evidence-based tools to help local communities make informed choices. Fluoride, long hailed as one of the most effective and low-cost ways to prevent tooth decay, has […]
Two physician-scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have been newly elected to the Association of American Physicians. Election is an honor bestowed on physicians who have made outstanding contributions to basic or translational biomedical research. They are Rajendra S. Apte, MD, PhD, and Eric J. Huang, MD, PhD. Apte, the Paul A. Cibis Distinguished Professor […]
How do you know if patients who use wheelchairs require assistance transferring to an exam table or if they feel more comfortable managing on their own? What medical accommodations could best support their needs? How should a physician interact with a patient who uses American Sign Language through an interpreter to ensure the patient’s needs […]
David H. Perlmutter, MD, executive vice chancellor for medical affairs and the George and Carol Bauer Dean of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, will conclude his deanship on June 30, 2026, according to Chancellor Andrew D. Martin. He will remain on the WashU Medicine faculty as the Spencer T. and Ann W. […]
The Here and Next Seed Grant program and The AI for Health Institute are pleased to announce the awardees of the new seed funding program supporting innovative and interdisciplinary research that leverages Artificial Intelligence (AI) to address critical challenges in health. This program is designed to catalyze collaborations across disciplines, encouraging the integration of AI […]
Four faculty in the McKelvey School of Engineering have been awarded $25,000 Collaboration Initiation Grants from the school. The program awards one-year grants to projects that facilitate collaborative research within McKelvey Engineering departments and other university departments for junior, untenured tenure-track McKelvey faculty. The grants are a pathway for faculty to apply for larger interdisciplinary grants, to […]
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have upended decades-old dogma of how connections between brain cells are rearranged during states of heightened vigilance or attention. The team found that a brain chemical associated with alertness, attention and learning alters brain connectivity and function not by acting directly on neurons, the cells […]
David Lee, a junior majoring in chemistry, and Perla Giles, a junior majoring in molecular microbiology, have been chosen to participate in WashU’s Beckman Scholars Program. Created by the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, the program is intended to provide “in-depth, sustained undergraduate research experiences for exceptionally talented, full-time undergraduate students.” Lee and Giles will each receive […]
The Food and Drug Administration’s approval in 2023 of lecanemab — a novel Alzheimer’s therapy shown in clinical trials to modestly slow disease progression — was met with enthusiasm by many in the field as it represented the first medication of its kind able to influence the disease. But side effects — brain swelling and […]
Washington University in St. Louis will remove the name of Robert J. Terry, MD, from all university features, including the Robert J. Terry Lecture Series and the Robert J. Terry Professorship at the School of Medicine. This action follows a comprehensive review by the university’s Naming Review Board (NRB) and recommendations unanimously endorsed by the WashU Board […]
Graduating students Kendall Burks and Elijah Darden have faced tough challenges in their young lives, but both have thrived thanks to the love and support of their communities. On Monday, May 12, Burks and Darden will encourage the Class of 2025 to lean on their communities as the navigate life after graduation. Here, Burks, who […]
Robi Mitra, PhD, the Alvin Goldfarb Distinguished Professor of Computational Biology in the Department of Genetics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has received the Chancellor’s Award for Innovation and Entrepreneurship for developing new genomic technologies that have allowed dramatic reductions in the cost of DNA sequencing. The award was presented at […]
As researchers make progress in understanding how Alzheimer’s disease develops, there are growing opportunities for healthy research participants to learn their risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease dementia in the future. While many organizations often advocate for investigators to share risk estimates with individual participants, there are ethical concerns around doing so, given that there are […]
A WashU-led study of nearly 30,000 students shatters misconceptions about a common and misunderstood condition. What does a person with an eating disorder look like? The picture may not be as clear-cut as many people think. Researchers at WashU led a groundbreaking study with an important lesson: Eating disorders don’t discriminate. “There’s been a perception […]
When a person sustains an injury to the spinal cord, the normal communications between the brain and the spinal circuits below the injury are interrupted, resulting in paralysis. Because the brain is functioning normally, as is the spinal cord below the injury, researchers have been working to re-establish the communication to allow for rehabilitation and […]
Two Washington University in St. Louis faculty are among nearly 250 newly elected members of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, one of the nation’s most prestigious honorary societies. They are physicist Carl Bender, in Arts & Sciences, and immunologist Marco Colonna, at the School of Medicine. Founded in 1780, the academy honors exceptional […]
It’s easy to solve a 3×3 Rubik’s cube, said Shantanu Chakrabartty, PhD, the Clifford W. Murphy Professor and vice dean for research and graduate education in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis. Just learn and memorize the steps, then execute them to arrive at the solution. Computers are already good at […]
Some proteins in human cells that are implicated in cancer also have causal roles in neurodevelopmental disorders, raising the possibility of repurposing targeted cancer therapies to help address neurodevelopmental diseases. But a new analysis, led by WashU Medicine researchers and published in Cell Genomics, shows that the same proteins may be acting in different ways in […]
Eating disorders are one of the deadliest forms of mental illness, but less than 20% of people with these disorders end up finding help. “There’s a huge need for access to care,” said Ellen Fitzsimmons-Craft, PhD, an associate professor of psychological and brain sciences in Arts & Sciences and of psychiatry at the School of Medicine, all […]
Shannon Lenze, PhD, an associate professor of psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, knows the grim statistics showing that gun violence, racism, poverty and a lack of access to transportation and nutritious foods can adversely affect mental and physical health during pregnancy, particularly among Black people who suffer disproportionately more than […]
Marco Pignatelli, MD, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has received a five-year $6.5 million grant from the Wellcome Trust to unravel little-known brain functions involved in depression. His project focuses on understanding the neurobiology underlying chronic anergia, the debilitating loss of energy and enthusiasm that affects […]
A team of WashU Medicine researchers has discovered a promising new use for Prozac, which is the brand name of the antidepressant fluoxetine, in the treatment of children with rare forms of epilepsy. In a Frontiers of Pharmacology case report published earlier this year, the researchers describe how fluoxetine treatment of two siblings with developmental and epileptic encephalopathy […]
Pediatric pilocytic astrocytoma (PA) is a common type of low-grade brain tumor in children, influenced by specific genetic changes. Led by David H. Gutmann, MD, PhD, the Donald O. Schnuck Family Professor of Neurology, researchers at WashU Medicine have conducted a study, published in Genes & Development, using advanced stem cell techniques to investigate the genetic […]
The fatigue and lack of motivation that many cancer patients experience near the end of life have been seen as the unavoidable consequences of their declining physical health and extreme weight loss. But new research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis challenges that long-held assumption, showing instead that these behavioral changes stem […]
This Research Insight covers a recent publication from the Apte Lab. Here, we highlight how Ryo Terao, MD, PhD, Mitsukuni Yoshida, MD, PhD, and colleagues explore how excessive cholesterol accumulation in the retina contributes to the degeneration of light-sensing photoreceptors, leading to vision loss. The evidence presented in this study suggests that targeting a process called […]
Researchers at WashU Medicine have harnessed the internal circadian clock of the body to deliver medication for an inflammatory illness precisely when it was most needed. Tissue implants incorporating genetically engineered stem cells automatically delivered anti-inflammatory medications to mouse models of rheumatoid arthritis on a daily basis right before inflammation peaked. The researchers dubbed this […]
Steven Bassnett, PhD, a national leader in vision research, has been installed as the inaugural Grace Nelson Lacy Distinguished Professor in Ophthalmology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The professorship is funded through a gift from the late Grace Nelson Lacy, an educator and WashU alumna who suffered from glaucoma for much […]
Researchers from WashU Medicine John F. Hardesty, MD Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences have identified the most effective treatments for chronic central serous chorioretinopathy (CSCR), a condition that can cause blurry vision and vision loss. The study, led by Henok Getahun and Dr. Rajendra Apte, reviewed the latest research to determine which treatments provide […]
Elizabeth Pollina, PhD, an assistant professor of developmental biology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has received the 2025 MIND Prize from the Pershing Square Foundation. The MIND (Maximizing Innovation in Neuroscience Discovery) Prize funds research by early- to mid-career investigators who are making innovative and cutting-edge contributions to the understanding, prevention […]