Category: News

Podcast: Omicron has arrived (Links to an external site)

This episode of ‘Show Me the Science’ looks at the new, highly contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus, and how scientists are working to determine whether it evades vaccines and to identify strategies to stay safe

Washington University Team Wins Inaugural TL1 Debate, ‘Statin Wars’ (Links to an external site)

TLI Debate Team

Congratulations to Washington University TL1 trainees, Ameen Awad, Samuel Cortez, MD, Annahita Fotouhi, and Alexandra Zdonczyk for winning the inaugural TL1 Debate on November 9, 2021, defeating a team from the University of Michigan. The debate, a new event developed from an existing training exercise for TL1 trainees at Washington University in St. Louis, featured […]

Dr. Javan Kisaka joins the Department of Medicine

Javan Kisaka, PhD, is an instructor at the Division of Infectious Disease. He studies molecular basis of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), specifically latent HIV reservoir and trying to better understand mechanisms of HIV replication in macrophages and resting CD4+T cells. He was born and raised in Kenya where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree […]

Director of Interventional Endoscopy

Vladimir Kushnir, MD

Dear Colleagues, It gives me great pleasure to announce that Vlad Kushnir, MD, has accepted the position of Director of Interventional Endoscopy effective December 1, 2021. Dr. Kushnir attended medical school at The Ohio State University and completed his internal medicine residency, GI fellowship and advanced interventional endoscopy training here at Washington University, joining the […]

Dr. Adriana Dusso joins the Department of Medicine

Adriana Dusso, PhD

Dr. Adriana Dusso is a Summa Cum Laude graduate in Biochemistry from the Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Argentina. In 1978, after a two-year fellowship in Clinical Biochemistry, she joined Dr. Puche´s laboratory in the Division of Biological Chemistry with a dual appointment: Assistant Professor of Biological Chemistry for 2nd year medical students and PhD student […]

Leadership Announcement – Co-Chiefs, Division of Hematology

Elaine M. Majerus, MD, PhD (left) and Stephen T. Oh, MD, PhD

It is my pleasure to announce that Elaine M. Majerus, MD, PhD and Stephen T. Oh, MD, PhD, have been named co-Chiefs of the Division of Hematology in the Department of Medicine, effective December 1, 2021. Dr. Majerus will be responsible for the clinical operations, clinical research and clinical training aspects and Dr. Oh will be responsible for […]

Congratulations to Newly Elected IDSA Fellows (Links to an external site)

We are proud to announce the following faculty, each who have been named a Fellow by the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the nation’s leading infectious diseases professional society. Fellowship in IDSA is one of the highest honors in the field of infectious diseases. 

Faculty and Trainees Attend Professional Development Conferences for Women in Medicine

The Department of Medicine, in an effort to support the professional development of women within the department, sponsored several faculty and trainees to attend virtual conferences, including the WIMSummit, September, 2021 and the Harvard Medical School Career Advancement and Leadership Skills for Women in Healthcare conference, November, 2021. Both conferences delivered a variety of professional […]

At the Intersection of Health Policy and Equity with Karen Joynt Maddox, MD, MPH

Karen Joynt Maddox’s career as a health policy researcher sparked from an initial interest to affect change in the world around her. Today, Joynt Maddox, MD, MPH, associate professor with the Cardiovascular Division and Co-Director of the Center for Health Economics and Policy at the Institute for Public Health at Washington University, is doing just […]

Undergraduate ASPIRE Program

Become a Summer Research Mentor Advanced Summer Program for Investigation and Research Education Clinical Research Mentors Needed! Students are admitted via a competitive application Fulltime, 3 credit program runs June 1 July 29, 2022 Students have 5 hours of weekly coursework in June (Fundamentals of Clinical and Translational Research) Students work fulltime in mentor’s lab […]

Dr. Frank Seghatol-Eslami joins the Department of Medicine

Dr. Frank Seghatol is a cardiologist and associate Professor of Medicine in the division of cardiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He is board certified in Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular Disease. He is also board certified and level III in echocardiography. Dr. Seghatol received my MD degree from the University of Brussels, Belgium […]

Dr. Jingyu (Jerry) Xiang joins the Department of Medicine

Dr. Jerry Xiang received his Medical Degree in 2010 from the Medical College of Three Gorges University in Yichang, China. After finishing medical school, he joined Dr. Katherine Weilbaecher’s lab as a postdoctoral research associate from 2010 to 2015 and continued to work as a staff scientist in the lab. During the training in Dr. […]

An unexpected path for inflammasome-mediated inflammation

Many inflammatory disorders are linked to an overactive NLRP3 inflammasome due to increased cell death and production of inflammatory cytokines.  In some cases, targeting the pyroptosis (an inflammatory form of cell death) pore forming unit GSDMD alleviates these disorders, but the direct role of GSDMD during sustained NLRP3 inflammasome activation is unclear. Using various knockout […]

Department of Medicine Faculty Honored at Academy of Educators Annual Education Day

Sponsored by the Academy of Educators, the School of Medicine’s Education Day was held on Tuesday, October 5, 2021. The event featured a variety of educational topics, a celebration of new inductees to the Academy of Educators and education-focused award recipients, followed by a networking session to wrap up the day. Education Day is held […]

Dr. Shannon Devlin joins the Department of Medicine

Dr. Shannon Devlin joined the Department of Medicine in the Division of Palliative Medicine as an instructor in October 2021. She was born and raised in Saint Louis but moved to Kansas City for college. She attended Rockhurst University, as part of the Saint Louis University School of Medicine Pre-Medical Scholars program, and graduated summa […]

Cross-discipline team publish study, “Breast cancer-derived GM-CSF regulates arginase 1 in myeloid cells to promote an immunosuppressive microenvironment”

A cross-discipline team of School of Medicine and Department of Medicine researchers have published, “Breast cancer-derived GM-CSF regulates arginase 1 in myeloid cells to promote an immunosuppressive microenvironment” in The Journal of Clinical Investigation.  The team of researchers found that breast cancer cells secrete lactic acid and a signaling protein, GM-CSF. GM-CSF in the acidic […]

Paper Focused on Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis Virus Published in Nature

Michael Diamond, MD, PhD and Daved Fremont, PhD recently had a paper published in the journal Nature. The paper describes how Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV) interacts with its receptor, LDLRAD3. This is important because VEEV is an emerging mosquito-borne virus that causes fast-spreading outbreaks. There are no good therapies or preventives for VEEV encephalitis, and figuring […]

Why Internal Medicine Program Directors remain in their positions, are effective, and thrive: A qualitative study (Links to an external site)

The American Journal of Medicine logo

Medical education must be led by qualified, experienced physician-educators. Residency program directors (PDs) balance unique challenges and responsibilities that include personal and professional development of their trainees while ensuring accreditation requirement compliance. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) mandates that a single PD has the authority, accountability, and responsibility for the program and […]

Victor G. Dávila-Román, MD – DOM Vice Chair of Global Health

Victor G. Dávila-Román, MD

I am pleased to announce that Victor G. Dávila-Román, MD, has been appointedVice Chair of Global Health in the Department of Medicine effective July 1, 2021. Dr. Dávila-Román will also be Director of the Global Health Center at the Institute for Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis. Dr. Dávila-Román is Professor of Medicine in the Cardiovascular […]

Thomas M. De Fer, MD – Chief of the Division of General Medicine

It is my distinct pleasure to announce that Dr. Thomas M. De Fer has been appointed the Chief of the Division of General Medicine. Tom has served as the interim Division Chief for General Medicine since September 2019. He is a Professor of Medicine and Associate Dean for Medical Student Education at Washington University School […]

Dr. Leslie Gewin joins the Department of Medicine

Leslie Gewin, MD

I am truly delighted to announce that Leslie Gewin, MD, will be joining our division as Associate Professor of Medicine. Dr. Gewin comes to us from the Division of Nephrology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center where she was an Associate Professor at the Nashville Veterans Affairs Medical Center where she serves as a Staff Physician. […]

Dr. Jing Li joins the Department of Medicine

Jing Li, MD, PhD

Jing Li, MD, DrPH, MS, was an Associate Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine and Co-Director of the Center for Health Services Research at the University of Kentucky where she had worked since January 2014. A graduate of Tianjin Medical University in 1997, she completed residency training in anesthesiology at the Tianjin Medical University General Hospital […]

Dr. Orsola di Martino joins the Department of Medicine

Orsola di Martino, PhD

Orsola di Martino is a postdoctoral research associate at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Her research is aimed at understanding the molecular mechanisms involved in acute myeloid leukemia development and progression to develop less aggressive and more efficient therapy. She received her doctorate in molecular and industrial biotechnology from the University of […]

Dr. Jonas Marschall joins the Department of Medicine

Jonas Marschall, MD is the Physician-in-Chief and Director of the Infection Prevention Program at Bern University Hospital in Switzerland, part of the management team of the Department of Infectious Diseases, and an Associate Professor with the University of Bern. The focus of his research is the epidemiology of infectious diseases acquired in the hospital setting […]