Celebrating 20 Years of the Diabetes Center (Links to an external site)

(left to right) Drs. Jeremiah Stitham, Kelley Williams, and Amy Riek

For 20 years, the WashU Medicine Diabetes Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital has provided comprehensive, patient-centered care for people living with diabetes while advancing education and research, embracing innovation, and expanding access to specialized treatment. 

New study reveals what patients, caregivers, and neurosurgeons really think about machine learning-assisted brain cancer care (Links to an external site)

Tristan McIntosh, PhD, an assistant professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine

A new paper from the Bioethics Research Center at WashU Medicine, published in Frontiers in Neurology and led by Tristan McIntosh, PhD, an assistant professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine, offers one of the first in-depth looks at how the people most affected by glioblastoma — patients, their caregivers, and the neurosurgeons who treat them — […]

Cosco receives Dean’s Medal for Education (Links to an external site)

Dominique Cosco, MD, a professor of medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine

Dominique Cosco, MD, a professor of medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine, received the WashU Medicine 2026 Dean’s Medal for Education. The annual Dean’s Medal awards recognize extraordinary contributions to WashU Medicine and celebrate leaders whose achievements embody the institution’s interconnected missions of patient care, education and research.

Zhiyu Dai, PhD, Appointed to NIH Study Section (Links to an external site)

Zhiyu Dai, PhD, Associate Professor of Medicine

The Division of Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine congratulates Zhiyu Dai, PhD, Associate Professor of Medicine, on his appointment to the Pulmonary Vascular Disease and Physiology Study Section (PVP) within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Center for Scientific Review. His term will run through June 30, 2030.

Ciesielski appointed Joint Commission Presidential Fellow (Links to an external site)

Thomas Ciesielski, MD, an associate professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine in the John T. Milliken Department of Medicine at WashU Medicine

Thomas Ciesielski, MD, an associate professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine in the John T. Milliken Department of Medicine at WashU Medicine, has been named the 2026–27 Presidential Fellow in Healthcare Safety and Quality by Joint Commission. The prestigious fellowship recognizes a distinguished professional who is ascending in a career dedicated to advancing […]

Reducing the risk of cyclosporiasis infection (Links to an external site)

Cyclosporiasis is an infection marked by intense diarrhea. The CDC has documented thousands of cases nationwide from May through July 2026. / Image © CDC

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is working with state and federal partners to investigate several outbreaks of cyclosporiasis, a gastrointestinal disease caused by the microscopic parasite Cyclospora cayetanensis. In a health alert published July 14, the CDC reported 1,645 known cases of cyclosporiasis nationwide May to July of 2026.

Dr. Erica L. Scheller Receives Prestigious 2026 Fuller Albright Award (Links to an external site)

Erica Scheller, DDS, PhD

The American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) released the 2026 Esteemed Awardees and has named Erica L. Scheller, DDS, PhD, as the recipient of the prestigious 2026 Fuller Albright Award. Named after Dr. Fuller Albright, a pioneer in parathyroid and osteoporosis research, this award recognizes scientific achievement by an investigator relatively early in […]

Dean’s Medals honor six individuals whose impact advances medicine and improves lives (Links to an external site)

David Perlmutter, MD, executive vice chancellor for medical affairs, the Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Distinguished Professor and the George and Carol Bauer Dean of WashU Medicine, recognizes the inaugural Dean’s Medal recipients honored in 2025 on the Medical Campus. (Photo: Erin Leu/WashU)

Six individuals whose work has transformed patient care, advanced scientific discovery, strengthened medical education and expanded WashU Medicine’s impact around the world have been honored with the 2026 Dean’s Medals. The annual awards recognize extraordinary contributions to WashU Medicine and celebrate leaders whose achievements embody the institution’s interconnected missions of patient care, education and research.

Researchers find a common weakness in major gut pathogens (Links to an external site)

WashU Medicine researchers and collaborators at the University of Missouri identified a shared vulnerability across diarrhea-causing bacteria including E. coli (shown) and Shigella, a finding that could potentially lead to a single combination vaccine against these pathogens.

The bacteria enterotoxigenic E. coli and Shigella together cause hundreds of millions of infections each year and are among the leading causes of diarrheal death, especially in children. Decades of vaccine development efforts have come up short, in part because the usual vaccine targets vary too much from one strain to the next.

American Disabilities Act (Links to an external site)

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) became law on July 26, 1990 and was signed by President George H.W. Bush. In his remarks, President George H. W. Bush famously said, “And now I sign legislation which takes a sledgehammer to another wall, one which has for too many generations separated Americans with disabilities from the […]

How obesity disrupts the body’s cellular messaging system (Links to an external site)

Clair Crewe, PhD

Lead author Clair Crewe, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine in WashU Medicine’s Division of Cell Biology and Physiology and Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Lipid Research, the Crewe Lab and collaborators from the Department of Pathology and Immunology and the Center for Human Nutrition are authors of a study published May 5, 2026, in Cell Metabolism.

Dr. Will Ross Receives NKF Award of Excellence (Links to an external site)

Will Ross, MD

Congratulations to Will Ross, MD, MPH, Alumni Endowed Professor of Medicine, Nephrology, and Associate Dean for Diversity at Washington University School of Medicine, who was honored with the National Kidney Foundation’s (NKF) Award of Excellence at their 75th Anniversary Heroes Awards celebration on March 5, 2026.  

Ignacio Portales-Castillo Awarded OKRA Opportunity Program Grant (Links to an external site)

Ignacio Portales-Castillo, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine

Ignacio Portales‑Castillo, MD, assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Nephrology, has been selected for funding in the third round of the George M. O’Brien Kidney Resource Alliance (OKRA) Opportunity Pool Program. He will receive $50,000 in research support for his pilot grant proposal, “Reduce Creatine in Proximal Tubule to Enhance Autophagy and Protect from Renal Injury.” 

Genetically modified hookworms produce and deliver therapeutics (Links to an external site)

WashU Medicine researchers genetically modified hookworms to produce and deliver a therapeutic antibody inside a host, a proof-of-concept that could lead to long-lasting treatments for chronic disease or exposure to toxins in remote settings. (Image courtesy of Makedonka Mitreva)

Hookworms, intestinal parasites that infect hundreds of millions of people in under-resourced tropical regions around the globe, have evolved to survive inside the human gut for years, secreting molecules that enable co-existence with their hosts. Now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have harnessed that biological mechanism for potential human benefit, […]

Millman receives grant to advance cell therapies for type 1 diabetes  (Links to an external site)

Jeffrey Millman, PhD

Jeffrey R. Millman, PhD, Professor of Medicine in the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism & Lipid Research at WashU Medicine, has received research funding from Breakthrough T1D to support his project titled “Overcoming Production Barriers to Stem Cell-Islet Therapies Through Scalable Technologies.” The two-year grant supports efforts to address key challenges in bringing manufactured islet cell therapies for type […]

Phoenix Molecular Designs Expands PMD-026 into Second Clinical Indication with Myelofibrosis Trial at WashU Medicine (Links to an external site)

Amy Zhou, MD, a hematologist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, sees a patient at Siteman Cancer Center's West County facility in Creve Coeur. Zhou treats patients with various blood disorders and conducts clinical trials investigating possible new therapies for such patients.

SAN DIEGO, California – VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 27, 2026 – Phoenix Molecular Designs (PhoenixMD), a clinical-stage precision oncology company developing first-in-class RSK kinase inhibitors, today announced the expansion of its lead asset PMD-026 into a second clinical indication with the initiation of Dauntless-3, an investigator-initiated Phase 1 trial in myelofibrosis at Washington University School […]

Zhiyu Dai, PhD, Receives 2026 Werner Risau Early Career Investigator Award in Vascular Biology (Links to an external site)

Zhiyu Dai, PhD, Associate Professor of Medicine

Congratulations to Zhiyu Dai, PhD, Associate Professor of Medicine, who was selected for the 2026 Werner Risau Early Career Investigator Award in Vascular Biology. This distinguished award was established in honor of Dr. Werner Risau, an investigator who formulated key concepts for the regulation of angiogenesis, challenged the prevailing dogmas about angiogenic factors, and proposed […]

Dr. Anuja Java Highlights Complement‑Mediated Kidney Disease at ISN’s 2026 World Congress of Nephrology in Yokohama (Links to an external site)

Anuja Java, MD

Transplant nephrologist Anuja Java, MD, associate professor of medicine at WashU Nephrology and Director of Kidney Transplant at the John Cochran VA Medical Center, was invited for the third consecutive year to speak at the International Society of Nephrology’s World Congress of Nephrology (WCN’26), held this year, March 28–31, 2026, in Yokohama, Japan.

Juneteenth (Links to an external site)

On June 19th, we celebrate Juneteenth, the annual commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States following the Civil War. In Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Grander announced the end of the Civil War and that those enslaved were now free. This announcement, however, came two and a half […]

Researchers augment infection surveillance tool with AI, find enhanced patient safety (Links to an external site)

Abby Sung, MD

WashU Medicine infectious diseases researchers have developed a practical use of artificial intelligence to enhance patient safety, while potentially reducing costs and improving efficiency at hospitals. Abby Sung, MD, an assistant professor of medicine, and colleagues in the Division of Infectious Diseases, WashU McKelvey School of Engineering AI for Health Institute, and Barnes-Jewish Hospital (BJH) found that a large language model (LLM) can strengthen a semi-automated surveillance tool used by infection prevention. 

Celebrating our 2025-2026 Graduates and Award Recipients (Links to an external site)

CRTC graduates and faculty

Throughout the academic year, scholars work relentlessly to elevate their learning and support their peers, mentors show up day after day ready to provide guidance to their mentees, and course directors engage scholars in labs and classrooms with dynamic training. This strong community is central to the success of programs at WashU Medicine, and it […]

Faculty join Infectious Diseases Society of America Fellowship in 2026 (Links to an external site)

Faculty join Infectious Diseases Society of America Fellowship in 2026

Nicolo Cabrera, MD, Joseph Cherabie, MD, MSc, and Adriana Rauseo, MD, Assistant Professors of Medicine, and Aaloke Mody, MD, Associate Professor in Medicine, have joined more than a dozen other Washington University School of Medicine Division of Infectious Diseases faculty members as Fellows of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA). They are among 166 new fellows this year to receive […]

Class Acts 2026: Ariel Hernandez-Leyva (Links to an external site)

Ariel Hernandez-Leyva, a graduating MD/PhD student at WashU Medicine

For about an hour, Ariel Hernandez-Leyva held a scientific secret. A discovery only he had uncovered. At the time, more than a decade ago, he was an undergraduate at Yale University, working long hours in a biology lab studying cytokinesis, the final stage of cell division. One spring afternoon, while using a high-resolution fluorescence microscope […]

Goldberg co-authors study on obicetrapib in patients with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (Links to an external site)

Anne Carol Goldberg, MD, FACP, Professor of Medicine in the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism & Lipid Research

Anne Carol Goldberg, MD, FACP, Professor of Medicine in the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism & Lipid Research at WashU Medicine, is a co-author of a study published February 27, 2026, in Nature Medicine. The article, titled “Obicetrapib in patients with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia: the BROOKLYN randomized clinical trial,” explores a potential new option for people living […]

Soudah and collaborators review semaglutide’s metabolic and cognitive effects  (Links to an external site)

Hani Soudah, MD, PhD

On March 1, Hani Soudah, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism, & Lipid Research at WashU Medicine, along with collaborators, published a new systematic review and meta-analysis examining the broader physiological effects of semaglutide titled “A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Semaglutide Effects on Adipose Tissue and Emerging Effects on Brain and Cognition.”