Kissick Family Foundation, Milken Institute Announce $2 Million in Funding for Frontotemporal Dementia Research and New Call for Proposals (Links to an external site)

frontotemporal dementia metadata

September 15, 2025 (Washington, DC)—The Kissick Family Foundation, in partnership with the Milken Institute Science Philanthropy Accelerator for Research and Collaboration (SPARC), today announced that the Kissick Family Foundation Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD) Grant Program has awarded four two-year grants to basic and early-stage translational research teams to advance scientific understanding of the neurodegenerative disorder. These philanthropic grants total […]

Orr lab named first-ever Bruker Spatial Biology Center of Excellence

Orr lab ribbon cutting as the first-ever Bruker Spatial Biology Center of Excellence

This designation recognizes Miranda Orr, PhD, associate professor of Neurology, and her team as global leaders in spatial biology, providing access to pre-commercial technologies and close partnership with Bruker Spatial Biology to advance the next generation of discovery.

Staff Spotlight Tasha Renner-Chavez

Tasha Renner-Chavez

Tasha Renner-Chavez began working at Washington University in 2011 in the Department of Psychiatry as a medical records clerk. Over the years, she advanced to become the lead scheduler and credentialing assistant. When she discovered credentialing, she knew it was the right fit and eventually joined the Department of Neurology in January 2023. Moving to […]

How Your Brain’s Nightly Cleanse Keeps It Healthy (Links to an external site)

Illustration of person sleeping under the stars

You can see it coming in right there, that little spot,” says neuroscientist and engineer Laura Lewis. A remarkably bright pulsing dot has appeared on the monitor in front of us. We are watching, in real time, the brain activity of a graduate student named Nick, who is having an afternoon nap inside an imaging […]

Smyser named next Division Director of Pediatric and Developmental Neurology

Chris Smyser

As of Sept. 1, 2025, Christopher Smyser, MD, will be the next division director of Pediatric and Developmental Neurology at WashU Medicine Neurology. He succeeds Christina Gurnett, MD, PhD, who has served as division director of Pediatric and Developmental Neurology since 2018. Smyser began his training at the University of Iowa, earning his undergraduate degree […]

New method more accurately assesses movement disorder in children (Links to an external site)

Bhooma Aravamuthan in an exam room with a young patient

Cerebral palsy affects around one in 345 children in the U.S., and more than half of them experience a problem called dystonia — involuntary and often painful muscle contractions, most commonly in the legs, that lead to abnormal movement and postures and make regular activities such as walking difficult. Traditionally, doctors have relied on subjective […]

Changing ‘body clock’ in early Alzheimer’s (Links to an external site)

Person in lab coat holds clock with DNA strand through middle

Alzheimer’s disease scientists at Washington University in St. Louis researching early clues that the disease may be developing recently pinpointed one: changes or disturbances in circadian rhythm, or “body clock.”  Their recent study found that circadian rhythm changes which cause disrupted sleep can occur as many as 20 years before Alzheimer’s symptoms begin … and well […]