Category: Research

Funding from Ron Shaich helps advance promising drug development at WashU Medicine

An ongoing clinical trial designed to answer critical questions regarding treatment protocols for anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis, a relatively rare but often devastating condition, is continuing to expand trial sites and enroll participants, building excitement in the medical and patient communities. At Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, David Clifford, MD, the Melba and […]

Scientists from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Washington University in St. Louis report mechanistic insights into the role of biomolecular condensation in the development of neurodegenerative disease. The collaborative research, published in Molecular Cell, focused on the interactions that drive the formation of condensates versus the formation of amyloid fibrils and how these relate to […]

A common sleep aid restores healthier sleep patterns and protects mice from the brain damage seen in neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease, according to new research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The drug, lemborexant, prevents the harmful buildup of an abnormal form of a protein called tau in the brain, […]

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have upended decades-old dogma of how connections between brain cells are rearranged during states of heightened vigilance or attention. The team found that a brain chemical associated with alertness, attention and learning alters brain connectivity and function not by acting directly on neurons, the cells […]

A team of WashU Medicine researchers has discovered a promising new use for Prozac, which is the brand name of the antidepressant fluoxetine, in the treatment of children with rare forms of epilepsy. In a Frontiers of Pharmacology case report published earlier this year, the researchers describe how fluoxetine treatment of two siblings with developmental and epileptic encephalopathy […]

The Food and Drug Administration’s approval in 2023 of lecanemab — a novel Alzheimer’s therapy shown in clinical trials to modestly slow disease progression — was met with enthusiasm by many in the field as it represented the first medication of its kind able to influence the disease. But side effects — brain swelling and […]

As researchers make progress in understanding how Alzheimer’s disease develops, there are growing opportunities for healthy research participants to learn their risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease dementia in the future. While many organizations often advocate for investigators to share risk estimates with individual participants, there are ethical concerns around doing so, given that there are […]

Francisco Rios has been participating in a clinical trial conducted by Washington University in St. Louis in which he has been receiving the Alzheimer’s drug Leqembi paired with an experimental therapy called E2814, given as intravenous infusions, to help slow his Alzheimer’s symptoms.

Pediatric pilocytic astrocytoma (PA) is a common type of low-grade brain tumor in children, influenced by specific genetic changes. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have conducted a study, published in Genes & Development, using advanced stem cell techniques to investigate the genetic alterations that cause PA and how they affect […]