Weihl installed as Gabe Weil Professor

Chris Weihl

Conrad Weihl, MD, PhD, was installed as the Gabe Weil Professor on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. The ceremony included remarks from David Perlmutter, MD, executive vice chancellor for medical affairs and the George and Carol Bauer Dean of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Chuck Rickert, MD, PhD, and Josephine and Richard Weil. […]

Staff Spotlight Jessica Hatch

Jessica Hatch

Jessica Hatch joined the Department of Neurology in 2025 as the director of Education and Business Administration. She has been at WashU since 2011 and was most recently assistant dean and director of Doctoral Programs at Olin Business School. She is passionate about the transformative power of higher education for individuals and the community. In […]

Dr Sean Smith | Fighting ALS at the Genetic Level: Real World Results for Tofersen (Links to an external site)

Illustration of Sean Smith, MD, MPHS, in a lab

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (or ALS), also known as Motor Neuron Disease, is a devastating condition that gradually reduces a patient’s ability to move, speak, and ultimately breathe. Among the various forms of ALS, about 2% of cases are linked to a mutation in a gene called SOD1. For years, there has been no effective treatment […]

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 […]

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 […]