Department of
ChromoSeq, an advanced diagnostic assay developed in the Department of Pathology & Immunology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, was recently approved for reimbursement by The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), a milestone for test developers and a win for patients with myeloid malignancies. The test is based on whole […]
Sonika Dahiya, MD, Professor of Pathology & Immunology and Head of Neuro-Oncology in the Department of Pathology & Immunology at Washington University School of Medicine, was recently named to the Working Committee of the Consortium to Inform Molecular and Practical Approaches to CNS Tumor Taxonomy (cIMPACT-NOW). This prestigious consortium was established under the sponsorship of […]
Nicholas Borcherding, MD, PhD, resident in Clinical Pathology and a member of the Physician Science Training Program (PSTP) in the Department of Pathology & Immunology at Washington University School of Medicine, recently received a 2023 Emerging Generation Award from The American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI). The award recognizes post-MD, pre-faculty appointment physician-scientists who are […]
Immunotherapy has transformed cancer care. In advanced melanoma, for example, the most fatal form of skin cancer, the five-year survival rate has risen from less than 10% to more than 50% since immunotherapy was introduced in 2011. Still, only about half of melanoma patients respond to immunotherapy, and those who do not respond face a […]
The Department of Pathology & Immunology at Washington University School of Medicine is pleased to announce ten physicians have been named Castle Connolly Top Doctors in 2023. “The recognition of these physicians is a testament to the high quality of our entire faculty, whose work benefits patients across our entire region,” said Richard J. Cote, […]
Stephen Persaud, MD, PhD, Instructor of Pathology & Immunology in the Department of Pathology & Immunology at Washington University School of Medicine, was recently named an American Society of Hematology (ASH) Scholar for 2023. One of ASH’s most prestigious research award programs, the ASH Scholar Awards support early career investigators dedicated to careers in hematology […]
Kenneth Murphy, MD, PhD, Eugene Opie First Centennial Professor in the Department Pathology & Immunology at Washington University School of Medicine, was named a Distinguished Fellow by the American Association of Immunologists (AAI). The program annually recognizes members of AAI “for distinguished careers and outstanding scientific contributions as well as their service to AAI and […]
Jeffrey I. Gordon, MD, the Dr. Robert J. Glaser Distinguished University Professor and director of the Edison Family Center for Genome Sciences & Systems Biology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been named this year’s recipient of the Dr. Paul Janssen Award for Biomedical Research. The honor recognizes Gordon’s groundbreaking studies of the […]
S. Joshua Swamidass, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Pathology & Immunologyat Washington University School of Medicine and Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, was recently elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Dr. Swamidass is recognized by AAAS “for distinguished contributions to the field […]
Richard J. Cote, MD, FRCPath, FCAP, Professor and Chair, Department of Pathology & Immunology at Washington University School of Medicine and Pathologist-in-Chief at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, was named a Castle Connolly Top Doctor in 2023. Every year, Castle Connolly accepts peer-only nominations for physicians at leading health centers including Washington University School of Medicine. The Castle […]
A growing pile of evidence indicates that the tens of trillions of microbes that normally live in our intestines — the so-called gut microbiome — have far-reaching effects on how our bodies function. Members of this microbial community produce vitamins, help us digest food, prevent the overgrowth of harmful bacteria and regulate the immune system, […]
Emil Raphael Unanue, MD, an internationally renowned immunologist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, died Dec. 16, 2022, surrounded by family in St. Louis after a two-year battle with glioblastoma. He was 88. Head of the Department of Pathology & Immunology at the School of Medicine from 1985 to 2006, Unanue built […]
The cancer therapy known as CAR-T has revolutionized treatment of some blood cancers since it was introduced in 2017. The therapy uses genetically altered immune cells to home in on cancer cells and destroy them. Now, studying mice with an autoimmune disease similar to multiple sclerosis (MS), researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in […]
Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and many other neurodegenerative diseases are marked by damaging clusters of proteins in the brain. Scientists have expended enormous effort searching for ways to treat such conditions by clearing these toxic clusters but have had limited success. Now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found an innovative way […]
Gary Grajales-Reyes, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of pathology & immunology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has received an Early Independence Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The award supports outstanding junior scientists with the intellect, scientific creativity, drive, and maturity to bypass or shorten the traditional postdoctoral training […]
Four faculty members at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, a part of the National Academy of Sciences. They are Opeolu M. Adeoye, MD; Farshid Guilak, PhD; David H. Gutmann, MD, PhD; and Jonathan Kipnis, PhD. Membership in the academy is considered one of the […]
Robert D. Schreiber, the Andrew M. and Jane M. Bursky Distinguished Professor at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has received the 2023 Richard V. Smalley Memorial Award from the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer. He joins three other scientists recognized by the society this year for outstanding contributions to the field of […]
An innovative project from the Department of Pathology & Immunology at Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes Jewish Hospital (BJH) won a 2022 QUEST (Quality, Excellence and Safety Team) Award, an accolade that recognizes contributions made to improve organization performance and quality of care through the use of process and outcome measures. The WashU […]
Suzanne R. Thibodeaux, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Pathology & Immunology at Washington University School of Medicine, was selected as Associate Scientific Member of the BEST Collaborative. The BEST (Biomedical Excellence for Safer Transfusion) Collaborative is an international collaborative of blood providers, industry and academic experts who undertake studies, publish guidance and recommend procedures, to improve the […]
Jeffrey I. Gordon, MD, the Dr. Robert J. Glaser Distinguished University Professor and director of the Edison Family Center for Genome Sciences & Systems Biology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, will be the inaugural recipient of the David and Beatrix Hamburg Award for Advances in Biomedical Research and Clinical Medicine, a […]
The Corbo Lab recently had a paper published in Current Biology, “A mechanism for red coloration in vertebrates.” In the paper, researchers define the enzymatic mechanism through which vertebrates make red color by studying the photoreceptors of chickens. This mechanism plays a fundamental role in animal coloration and color vision, said Joe Corbo, MD, PhD, […]
The Brestoff Lab had a paper published in Cell Metabolism. The paper, “Dietary lipids inhibit mitochondria transfer to macrophages to divert adipocyte-derived mitochondria into the blood,” summarizes three key findings: Adipocytes transfer their mitochondria to tissue-specific networks of cells in white, beige and brown fat, with macrophages being the dominant recipient cells in each tissue. […]
We are thrilled to announce our residency program has been named among the best in the nation. According to a new ranking published by professional medical network Doximity, the Pathology & Immunology Residency Program at Washington University School of Medicine ranks number one in size, number six in research output, and number eleven in overall […]
Three faculty members in the Department of Pathology & Immunology at Washington University School of Medicine were recently awarded a multi-year, multi-million dollar grant to research the aging brain. The group, which comprises Jonathan Kipnis, PhD, BJC Investigator, Alan A. and Edith L. Wolff Distinguished Professor of Pathology and Immunology; Gwen Randolph, PhD, Emil R. […]
About 18 million children under age 5 suffer from severe acute malnutrition, and over 3 million children die from it each year. Treatment with high-calorie supplemental foods and antibiotics can prevent deaths, but these interventions often have limited impact on the long-term effects of severe acute malnutrition, such as persistent stunted growth, disrupted immune function […]
Jeffrey I. Gordon, MD, of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been named the 2022 Senior Scientist Winner of the Innovators in Science Award administered by the New York Academy of Sciences and sponsored by Takeda Pharmaceuticals.
Dr. Melanie Yarbrough is the recipient of the 2022 Ellis Benson Award, given by the Academy of Clinical Laboratory Physicians and Scientists (ACLPS) in recognition of her work in advancing diagnostic methods for infectious diseases such as bloodstream and urinary tract infections. The Ellis Benson Award is the premier award of ACLPS to a young faculty member in […]
The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Rochelle P. Walensky, MD, will participate in a conversation about the pandemic Thursday, March 3, from 8 to 9 a.m. at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The virtual event, available via livestream, will be geared toward faculty, staff, students and trainees on the […]
Following departmental strategic planning, the Pathology & Immunology Office of Faculty Development (OFD) was founded in 2020. OFD supports our departmental core values (excellence, respect, inclusion, and diversity), and the mission of the OFD is to support a thriving and diverse department with professionally happy and healthy faculty who are productive, well recognized, and respected […]
For at least six months after COVID-19 vaccination, antibodies produced by immune cells become steadily more formidable and more precisely targeted against the virus that causes COVID-19, according to a study of the antibody response to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
When South African scientists announced in November that they had identified a new variant of the virus that causes COVID-19, they also reported two worrying details: one, that this new variant’s genome was strikingly different from that of any previous variant, containing dozens of mutations compared with the original virus that emerged in 2019; and […]
The Association for the Advancement of Blood & Biotherapies recently honored Brenda J. Grossman, MD, and Jeffrey P. Henderson, MD, PhD, noted researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, with a 2021 President’s Award.
The American Society for Clinical Investigation recently announced their list of 2022 Young Scientist Awardees, and Jonathan Brestoff, MD, PhD is among those being recognized. The ASCI Council Young Physician-Scientist Awards recognize physician-scientists who are early in their first faculty appointment and have made notable achievements in their research. With these awards, the ASCI seeks to encourage and inspire […]
A new episode of the School of Medicine podcast, “Show Me the Science,” has been posted. This episode of ‘Show Me the Science’ features, Ali Ellebedy, PhD and looks at how vaccines and prior infections provide some immunity as omicron continues to spread.
The first two vaccines created with mRNA vaccine technology — the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines — are arguably two of the most effective COVID vaccines developed to date. In clinical trials, both were more than 90% effective at preventing symptomatic infection, easily surpassing the 50% threshold the Food and Drug Administration had set for […]
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has awarded $22 million to nearly 30 organizations in 50 countries for efforts to combat antimicrobial resistance and other infection-related threats to health. Part of that funding will support 11 short-term research projects aimed at identifying new solutions to help prevent antimicrobial-resistant infections and their spread, including two such […]
Jonathan Kipnis, PhD, the Alan A. and Edith L. Wolff Distinguished Professor of Pathology & Immunology and a BJC Investigator at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been named an academic editor of the Journal of Experimental Medicine, a high-impact journal that publishes papers on immunology, cancer biology, vascular biology, microbial pathogenesis, neuroscience and […]
People who received two doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine while on TNF inhibitors — a class of immunosuppressants used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune conditions — generated less powerful and shorter-lived antibodies against the virus that causes COVID-19 than healthy people and those on other kinds of immunosuppressants, according to a study […]
Ann M. Gronowski, PhD, has agreed to serve as the interim Clinical Co-Chief of the Division of Laboratory and Genomic Medicine (LGM) in the Department of Pathology and Immunology (P&I), and CLIA Medical Director of Barnes-Jewish Hospital Clinical Laboratories, starting January 1, 2022. Ann is currently Vice Chair of Faculty Affairs & Development and Medical […]
For hard-to-treat leukemias, lymphomas and other blood cancers, stem cell transplantation is the gold standard of care. The procedure involves replacing a patient’s own blood-forming stem cells with a donor’s stem cells and, in the process, eradicating cancer cells in the blood, lymph nodes and bone marrow.
Last week the department recognized and celebrated the recipients of the 2021 Faculty and Staff Awards. These awards recognized the hard work and dedication that members of the department do daily to continue to move the department forward toward success. Congratulations to all awardees! To see a list of recipients and photos from the event […]
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, […]
Nearly everyone gets infected with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) repeatedly over the course of a lifetime, starting in childhood. Most times, people fight off the virus handily and only end up with a mild cold. But some people — most often young children experiencing their first infection or older adults whose immunity has waned — […]
Rift Valley fever virus causes economically devastating outbreaks of hemorrhagic fever in livestock such as sheep, goats and cattle. These mosquito-borne outbreaks lead to infection in people working with dead or dying animals, sometimes causing hundreds of human cases and dozens of deaths.
Congratulations to Dr. Robert Potter, Microbiology Fellow, co-recipient of the @WUSTLmed Laboratory and Genomic Medicine (LGM) award for delivering the outstanding trainee talk of the year for LGM Grand Rounds! Congratulations to Dr. Saravanan Raju, Clinical Pathology Resident, co-recipient of the @WUSTLmed Laboratory and Genomic Medicine (LGM) award for delivering the outstanding trainee talk of […]
Jeffrey I. Gordon, MD, the Dr. Robert J. Glaser Distinguished University Professor at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, is a recipient of this year’s Balzan Prize for his role in founding the field of human gut microbiome research and revolutionizing the understanding of gut microbes and their roles in human health and disease.
COVID-19 vaccination elicited antibody responses in nearly nine out of 10 people with weakened immune systems, although their responses were only about one-third as strong as those mounted by healthy people, according to a study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
Recently, the History of Clinical Chemistry Division of the AACC recognized Ann Gronowski, PhD for her efforts to promote the heritage of clinical chemistry by presenting her with the Caraway-Meites Award. This award recognizes individuals whose efforts have documented and described the origins, development, and impact of clinical chemistry on the practice of medicine. In the February […]
The virus that causes COVID-19 today is not the same as the one that first sickened people way back in December 2019. Many of the variants circulating now are partially resistant to some of the antibody-based therapeutics that were developed based on the original virus. As the pandemic continues, more variants inevitably will arise, and […]
Alphaviruses — mosquito-borne viruses that can trigger brain infections and arthritis — may have met their match. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified two antibodies that protect animals from disease caused by alphaviruses. The antibodies worked for every alphavirus tested, meaning they potentially could form the basis of treatments […]