Some viruses can pass generationally between mother and fetus in utero (in the case that breaks in the placental barrier are present, during delivery, or during breastfeeding). HIV, toxoplasma gondii, rubella, cytomegalovirus, and herpesviruses have been proven to transfer from mother to child via these routes. This is known as vertical transmission. Image Credit: Magic mine/Shutterstock.com The impact of vertical […]
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A new episode of our podcast, “Show Me the Science,” has been posted. At present, these podcast episodes are highlighting research and patient care on the Washington University Medical Campus as our scientists and clinicians confront the COVID-19 pandemic. In the year since COVID-19 infections first appeared in the United States, a few things have become clear. One is that […]
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Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have implicated a type of immune cell in the development of chronic lung disease that sometimes is triggered following a respiratory viral infection. The evidence suggests that activation of this immune cell — a type of guardian cell called a dendritic cell — serves as an early switch that, when […]
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Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, opioid misuse has continued unabated in the United States, with an estimated 2.5 million or more Americans suffering from opioid use disorder. Most people treated for the disorder are given medications, such as buprenorphine, that activate opioid receptors. But there is disagreement about whether it’s safe to prescribe buprenorphine for people who also take benzodiazepines, […]
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Since early in the pandemic, COVID-19 has been associated with heart problems, including reduced ability to pump blood and abnormal heart rhythms. But it’s been an open question whether these problems are caused by the virus infecting the heart, or an inflammatory response to viral infection elsewhere in the body. Such details have implications for understanding how best to treat […]
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In the earliest stages of the pandemic, the severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus was thought to cause diseases of the respiratory system, with the thin cells of the respiratory system providing an environment for the infection to spread among humans via the respiratory tract. Across the globe, populations were asked to remain vigilant of three classic symptoms: a […]
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Farshid Guilak, PhD, the Mildred B. Simon Research Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and co-director of the Washington University Center of Regenerative Medicine, has received the 2021 Elizabeth Winston Lanier Kappa Delta Award for his research involving the treatment of arthritic joints, growing cartilage from patients’ donor cells and seeding them on a scaffold to create a living joint replacement as […]
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Patients undergoing complex cardiac surgery are at risk of excessive bleeding, a life-threatening complication that can occur during or after the operation and often requires a transfusion of platelets. Platelets help blood clot, preventing blood loss. The Food and Drug Administration allows hospitals to store platelets at room temperature for only five to seven days. But there is renewed interest […]
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When a patient arrives in the emergency room with symptoms of a heart attack, doctors’ first priority is to restore blood flow to the heart muscle. Over the past few decades, therapeutic advances aimed at getting blood flowing and reducing strain on the heart have improved patients’ chances of surviving heart attacks to more than 90% from 50%. However, survivors […]
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Paul and Elke Koch have committed their support to Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis to establish the Kim and Tim Eberlein Distinguished Professorship. Ryan C. Fields, MD, has been named the inaugural recipient. Fields is chief of the Section of Surgical Oncology in the Department of Surgery and co-leads the Solid Tumor Therapeutics Program at Alvin J. […]
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