$10 million in grants aimed at preventing organ rejection after transplantation (Links to an external site)

$10 million in grants aimed at preventing organ rejection after transplantation
Transplant surgeons and researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have received two grants totaling $10 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study how immune cells contribute to organ rejection, with the aim of improving the viability of organs after transplant. A $7.7 million program project grant from the […]

Identifying emerging diseases focus of new international collaboration (Links to an external site)

Identifying emerging diseases focus of new international collaboration
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are establishing a new international collaboration that aims to help scientists prepare for the next pandemic and, perhaps, provide insight into the current one. The School of Medicine is one of 10 sites and a coordinating center forming the Centers for Research in Emerging Infectious Diseases, […]

Nasal vaccine against COVID-19 prevents infection in mice (Links to an external site)

Nasal vaccine against COVID-19 prevents infection in mice
Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have developed a vaccine that targets the SARS-CoV-2 virus, can be given in one dose via the nose and is effective in preventing infection in mice susceptible to the novel coronavirus. The investigators next plan to test the vaccine in nonhuman primates and humans to […]

Major weight loss — whether from surgery or diet — has same metabolic benefits (Links to an external site)

Major weight loss — whether from surgery or diet — has same metabolic benefits
Gastric bypass surgery is the most effective therapy to treat or reverse type 2 diabetes in severely obese patients. Many achieve remission of diabetes following surgery and no longer require diabetes medications. This observation has led to the theory that gastric bypass surgery has unique, weight loss-independent effects in treating diabetes, but this has remained […]

Dr. Patrick Grierson joins the Department of Medicine

Dr. Patrick Grierson joins the Department of Medicine
Dr. Patrick Grierson attended medical school at Ohio State University College of Medicine graduating in 2014. He then matriculated to Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis completing his residency in Medicine in 2016 and a fellowship in Hematology/Oncology in 2020. Dr. Grierson then joined the faculty as an Instructor on the Clinician Track […]

Dr. Ramzi Abboud joins the Department of Medicine

Dr. Ramzi Abboud joins the Department of Medicine
Dr. Ramzi Abboud attended medical school at the University of Rochester where he graduated Alpha Omega Alpha in 2014. He then matriculated to Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis completing his residency in Medicine in 2017 and a fellowship in Hematology/Oncology in 2020. Dr. Abboud then joined the faculty as an Instructor on […]

Dr. Ingrid Eshun-Wilson joins the Department of Medicine

Dr. Ingrid Eshun-Wilson joins the Department of Medicine
Dr. Ingrid Eshun-Wilson joined the Department of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases as an Instructor in July, 2020. Dr. Eshun-Wilson received an undergraduate Medical Degree and Diploma in Family Medicine at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, where she worked as a HIV physician for several years. She further developed her […]

Four steps to a healthy WashU community (Links to an external site)

Four steps to a healthy WashU community
With the start of the academic year, each and every member of the Washington University in St. Louis community who will be on campus this fall will be required to follow four steps – four public health measures that must be completed by students, faculty and staff individually, but will have an impact globally.

Dr. Peter McDonnell joins the Department of Medicine

Dr. Peter McDonnell joins the Department of Medicine
Dr. Peter McDonnell joined the Department of Medicine in the Division of General Medicine as an Instructor in July, 2020. Dr. McDonnell grew up on the coast of the Puget Sound in Washington State, where he also attended Seattle University for his undergraduate studies. He received his medical degree at the University of Michigan School […]

Dr. Sharmila Nair joins the Department of Medicine

Dr. Sharmila Nair joins the Department of Medicine
Dr. Sharmila Nair joined the Department of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases as an Instructor in July, 2020. Dr. Nair completed her Bachelor’s degree at the Amity University, India and a Masters degree at University of Bristol, UK. During her Masters, Sharmila conducted research in the laboratory of Dr. Andrew Davidson investigating interactions […]

Clinical trial focuses on reducing overactive immune response in COVID-19 (Links to an external site)

Clinical trial focuses on reducing overactive immune response in COVID-19
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are investigating whether a drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat rare diseases of an overactive immune system could help critically ill patients hospitalized with COVID-19. The drug blocks a specific protein of the immune system that doctors suspect contributes to […]

Washington University, St. Louis County collaborate on COVID-19 survey (Links to an external site)

Washington University, St. Louis County collaborate on COVID-19 survey
Washington University in St. Louis, the St. Louis County Department of Public Health and other collaborators are conducting a survey of St. Louis County residents and offering COVID-19 testing to gauge the prevalence of and risk factors for the illness. Working with the county, Washington University’s Institute for Public Health is teaming up with other local public health and […]

Dr. Maanasi Samant joins the Department of Medicine

Dr. Maanasi Samant joins the Department of Medicine
Dr. Maanasi Samant joined the Department of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care as an Assistant Professor in July 2020. Dr. Samant is a clinician-educator with interests in pulmonary hypertension, specifically in the treatment of diseases that are sequelae of pulmonary embolism (PE), such as chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension. She is a […]

Dr. Brian Laidlaw joins the Department of Medicine

Dr. Brian Laidlaw joins the Department of Medicine
Dr. Brian Laidlaw joined the Department of Medicine in the Division of Allergy and Immunology in July, 2020. Dr. Laidlaw’s research interests lie in investigating memory B cell (MBC) development and function in settings of disease. MBCs are critical for the development of protective immunity following infection or immunization. Repeated pathogen encounters can give rise […]

Pandemic acts as dress rehearsal for new medical school curriculum (Links to an external site)

Pandemic acts as dress rehearsal for new medical school curriculum
Dozens of faculty, students and staff at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have committed countless hours over the past three years to planning a new curriculum that will launch in September with the arrival of incoming medical students. Although faculty, students and staff didn’t know it, they also were preparing for the […]

DOM Insider Volume 5

DOM Insider Volume 5
In this Issue: Letter from the Chair, Spotlight, COVID Update, Wellness Resources, EPIC Update, Research News, Clinical News, Education News, Upcoming Events, Across the Department of Medicine, New Faculty Leadership, Awards/Grants/Honors, Welcome to New Fellows, and Welcome to Twitter

Dr. Mary Clare McGregor joins the Department of Medicine

Dr. Mary Clare McGregor joins the Department of Medicine
Mary Clare McGregor, MD joined the faculty as an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care at Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine in July 2020. Dr. McGregor is originally from Minnesota, and attended the University of Notre Dame for undergraduate with a major in pre-professional studies and […]

Dr. Andrew Michelson joins the Department of Medicine

Dr. Andrew Michelson joins the Department of Medicine
Dr. Andrew P. Michelson, joined the Department of Medicine in the division of Pulmonology and Critical Care Medicine as an Assistant Professor in July 2020. He is a physician-scientist with research interests in critical care outcomes, clinical informatics, and healthcare technology. His current research interests include: (1) the use of artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) to […]

Global wildlife surveillance could provide early warning for next pandemic (Links to an external site)

Global wildlife surveillance could provide early warning for next pandemic
The virus that causes COVID-19 probably originated in wild bats that live in caves around Wuhan, China, and may have been passed to a second animal species before infecting people, according to the World Health Organization. Many of the most devastating epidemics of recent decades – including Ebola, avian influenza and HIV/AIDS – were triggered […]

COVID-19 vaccine trials to be conducted at Washington University, Saint Louis University (Links to an external site)

COVID-19 vaccine trials to be conducted at Washington University, Saint Louis University
As U.S. scientists ramp up a national effort to evaluate COVID-19 vaccine candidates at clinical trial sites across the country, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the Saint Louis University Center for Vaccine Development have been tapped to join the historic effort to find a COVID-19 vaccine that can prevent […]

Dr. Jonathan Moreno joins the Department of Medicine

Dr. Jonathan Moreno joins the Department of Medicine
Dr. Jonathan Moreno joined the Department of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology as an Instructor in July, 2020. Dr. Moreno is from the suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts, and completed his undergraduate training at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he received dual BS degrees in Chemical Engineering and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Following graduation,he attended […]

Dr. Ben Rogers joins the Department of Medicine

Dr. Ben Rogers joins the Department of Medicine
Dr. Ben Rogers joined the Department of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology as an Instructor in July, 2020. Dr. Rogers completed his undergraduate studies at Western Kentucky University majoring in biology. After that, he spent one year teaching English language classes in Spain, subsequently continuing his education at the University of Louisville in Kentucky […]