washuonr.bsky.social

Susan Stark and team at the @WashU School of Public Health find that a fall can be an early warning sign for Alzheimer's disease (AD). She suggests that older people who fall should be screened for AD, and people with AD should be screened for fall risk.

bit.ly/40l9M4A

Ignite Interdisciplinary Grant awardees announced - WashU Public Health WashU's Ignite grant programs supports innovative, interdisciplinary research focused on public health

Fall 2025 @washu.edu Ignite Interdisciplinary Grant awards: How wildfires trigger headaches; Promoting healthy brain development; Safely prescribing opioids for sickle cell disease; and other efforts to solve society’s deepest public health challenges

Specific brain signals rapidly eliminate body fat in mice A study by researchers at WashU Medicine reveals how the body reprograms stable fat cells to eliminate stubborn fat reserves.

A team led by Erica L. Scheller @washumedicine.bsky.social, with Xiao Zhang and others identified a potent pathway that begins in the brain and leads to loss of all body fat without reducing food intake. Findings published in @natmetabolism.nature.com.

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What the eye can tell us about RVCL-S | Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences Participants with RVCL-S underwent eye imaging and brain MRI scans to see if changes in the retina reflect disease severity in the brain.

A team including Rajendra Apte @washumedicine.bsky.social and Andria Ford @washuneurology.bsky.social demonstrate a correlation between macular volume and brain white matter loss in RVCL-S.

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AI ‘CHEF’ could help those with cognitive declines complete home tasks AI-occupational therapy team leverages novel vision-language models to detect cognitive errors

Chenyang Lu @washuengineers.bsky.social, Lisa Tabor Connor and team created a potential AI assistant that may help individuals with cognitive decline cook meals and maintain independence.

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Psychedelics disrupt normal link between brain’s neuronal activity and blood flow Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis show that psychedelic compounds such as psilocybin appear to distort the link between blood flow and brain-cell functioning, which ...

Recent work in functional imaging by Adam Bauer and @jordacular.bsky.social @washumedicine.bsky.social and Joshua Siegel published in @natneuro.nature.com, shows that psychedelics can reset brain network activity, possibly explaining their therapeutic benefit.

Timing may be key to effective cancer treatments Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis find the timing of biopsy can affect how doctors diagnose tumors and when those cancers may be more sensitive to chemotherapy.

Timing matters: @erikherzog.bsky.social @washu.edu , Joshua Rubin and team analyzed 5 years of glioblastoma biopsy results and conclude, “We are hopeful that this chronodiagnostic approach will help identify better ways to treat this devastating disease.” Published in the Journal of Neuro-Oncology.

Creed to study dopamine system changes in chronic nerve pain Meaghan Creed, an associate professor of anesthesiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has received a $3.3 million five-year grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse ...

With $3.3M funding from National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health; Meaghan Creed @washumedicine.bsky.social hopes to pinpoint how, when and where dopamine signaling is disrupted in the brain as neuropathic pain becomes chronic.

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Lang named Barbara J. Norton Professor of Physical Therapy Catherine E. Lang, a leading researcher in the field of stroke recovery and rehabilitation in the Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine Program in Physical Therapy, has been installed ...

Catherine Lang from the @washu.edu program in Physical Therapy pioneered wearable sensors to track/enhance stroke recovery and has been installed as the inaugural Barbara J. Norton Professor of Physical Therapy, the program’s first named professorship.

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Nasal drops fight brain tumors noninvasively Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have developed a nano-sized medicine delivered through the nose that boosts the anti-cancer immune response and successfully elimin...

Collaborators Alexander H. Stegh, @washumedicine.bsky.social and Chad A. Mirkin at Northwestern University show that nasal delivery of spherical nucleic acids safely/effectively activates immune response to attack glioblastoma. @pnasnexus.org

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Prime time for fiber optics to take a deep dive into brain circuits A group of researchers from Washington University in St. Louis has created a new kind of fiber-optic device to manipulate neural activity deep in the brain.

The PRIME fiber optic device developed by Song Hu @washuengineers.bsky.social + @kepecslab.bsky.social @washuneurology.bsky.social uses optogenetics to deliver multi-site, reconfigurable optical stimulation through a single, hair-thin implant, enabling study of neural circuits and behavior.

$3.2 Million Grant Supports Study of Neuropsychiatric Symptoms in Alzheimer’s Disease - Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology - WashU Medicine Ganesh Chand, PhD, received a four-year, $3.2 million NIH grant to study the neuropsychiatric mechanisms in AD.

Developing new machine learning and AI algorithms in AD, Ganesh B.Chand at @washumedicine.bsky.social MIR aims to be the first to systematically investigate the intricate relationships among biomarkers, neuropsychiatric symptoms, vascular risks and genetic predisposition.

bit.ly/49KMAlR

Extrudable hydrogels act as bioelectronic conductors Research in Alexandra Rutz’s lab creates hydrogels that could measure biological activity

The lab of Alexandra Rutz including Anna Goestenkors @washuengineers.bsky.social created granular hydrogels made of microparticles. With Barani Raman, hydrogels on tips of locust antennae enabled measurement of field measurements during locusts' odor sensation.

Disrupting infectious diseases With a grant from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, a multi-institutional research team led by scientists at Virginia Tech and Washington University in St. Louis will develop an indoor...

The BRAVE project @arpa-h.bsky.social aims to develop bioaerosol sensors to disrupt infectious disease transmission. WashU team includes Rajan Chakrabarty @washuengineers.bsky.social, John Cirrito @washuneurology.bsky.social, Carla Yuede in Psychiatry @washumedicine.bsky.social

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WashU chemists reveal new insights into ALS-linked protein Using advanced biophysical and imaging techniques, Meredith Jackrel and her team have isolated Matrin-3 to better understand its role in neurodegenerative diseases.

With funds from NIH, @alsassociation.bsky.social , and Target ALS Foundation, Macy Sprunger and Meredith Jackrel @washu.edu and collaborators purified and visualized Matrin-3, a major advance for studying the root causes of ALS. Findings published @cp-molcell.bsky.social .

bit.ly/4oAYHq3

Personalized brain modeling of anesthetic effects to predict antidepressant response ShiNung Ching, Ben Julian Palanca, MD, PhD, look at brain dynamics, neural circuits as clues to alternative approaches

With an NIH grant, ShiNung Ching from the McKelvey School of Engineering and Ben Palanca @washumedicine.bsky.social seek personalized medicine strategies for treatment-resistant depression by developing a data-driven modeling method to identify how the brain responds to propofol.

bit.ly/42Qv63q

New study may help uncover childhood lead exposure's true impact Data scientists at Washington University in St. Louis used new statistical tools to find that the association between lead exposure and academic test scores may be even stronger than previously suspec...

New study by Joe Feldman @washuartsci.bsky.social and collaborators links lead exposure to lower standardized test scores. Using models to fill in missing lead exposure data, they predict an even stronger impact of lead on test score performance.

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Mouse study links chronic pain to disrupted sleep patterns Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine have developed the first mouse model to replicate the disrupted sleep patterns seen in people with chronic pain.

A team including Jose Moron-Concepcion, Erik Musiek and Khairunisa Ibrahim @washumedicine.bsky.social and others generated a model to explore links between chronic pain and sleep disruption. Findings published in @npp-journal.bsky.social.

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What do our words say about our minds? Words are windows into the brain. The words that we choose — and how we say them — speak volumes about our personalities and even our mental health, said Josh Oltmanns, an assistant professor of psych...

What do our words reveal about us? Josh Oltmanns of Psychological and Brain Sciences @washu.edu (Arts & Sciences) and colleagues are developing AI tools to help psychologists uncover hidden cues in language that reflect personality traits and mental-health signals.

bit.ly/4ponpuX

New method accurately assesses movement disorder in children | WashU Medicine A study in humans and mice from WashU Medicine could inform new treatments for leg dystonia, a common complication of cerebral palsy.

A team led by @drbhooma.bsky.social
@washuneurology.bsky.social @washumedicine.bsky.social identified an objective measure of leg dystonia in children with cerebral palsy, and mimicked this measurement in mice to better understand causes and possible therapies for dystonia.

bit.ly/3JLFX7Z

Hope for those with treatment-resistant depression A WashU Medicine study paves the way to make an effective treatment more accessible to those 'paralyzed by life.'

Charles Conway (Psychiatry @washumedicine.bsky.social) reports a new study in which participants with treatment-resistant depression received vagus nerve stimulation for one year via a pacemaker-like device implanted under the skin. Patients reported improved lives.

bit.ly/47OVZb7

WashU Medicine researchers identify potential for repurposing Prozac to treat rare epilepsy - Department of Neuroscience Gurnett and Salkoff are lead authors on a case report on how Prozac can be used in the treatment of children with rare forms of epilepsy.

Christina Gurnett and Lawrence Salkoff report in
Frontiers of Pharmacology that fluoxetine (Prozac) improved seizure control in two sisters, patients of Dr. Gurnett with a rare pathogenic variant in the KCNC2 gene, identified by @tycheleturner.bsky.social‬.

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WashU Expert: Synthetic torpor has potential to redefine medicine Hong Chen, a biomedical engineer at Washington University in St. Louis, shares the potential for using synthetic torpor technology to develop new treatments for a range of illnesses and injuries.

Hong Chen @washuengineers.bsky.social in the Department of Neurosurgery aims to develop synthetic torpor (lower temp, metabolism) using focused ultrasound, with potential for stroke neuroprotection, organ preservation, lifespan extension and others.
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Blood plasma reveals shared pathways in neurodegenerative diseases Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine researchers identify biomarkers of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and frontotemporal dementia from blood plasma, suggesting new therapeutic avenues.

A new study by Carlos Cruchage and Muhammad Ali WashU Psychiatry @washumedicine.bsky.social published in @naturemedicine.bsky.social used plasma from 10,500+ patients with Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's or FTD to create and validate a model to predict risk of each disease.

bit.ly/41h5tYF

WashU Medicine selected for Parkinson’s disease training program | WashU Medicine Edmond J. Safra Fellowship to fund training of movement disorder specialist in the Department of Neurology

The @WashUNeurology @washuneurology.bsky.social has been selected by The Michael J. Fox Foundation as one of eight new sites for the Edmond J. Safra Fellowship in Movement Disorders. The new program will be led by Baijayanta Maiti, MD, PhD.

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Unequal risk: Why MS is a growing problem in Black communities A new paper is challenging longstanding misconceptions about multiple sclerosis, a common autoimmune disease that affects roughly one million people in the United States. “For many years, MS was seen ...

A new paper by Theresa Gildner of @washuartsci.bsky.social and Annette Langer-Gould of Los Angeles General Medical Center finds that #MS is more common in Black than white women, and that disparities in the environment and the health system are driving that trend.

bit.ly/3It6w19

Yoo, Sun recognized for developing novel method to study aged neurons | WashU Medicine Morby prize from Cure Alzheimer’s Fund honors groundbreaking Alzheimer’s research

Andrew Yoo and Zhao Sun of @washumedicine.bsky.social receive Morby Prize @curealzheimersfund.bsky.social ‪for seminal study in @science.org to show skin cells from patients with late-onset Alzheimer’s can be transformed into neurons and reproduce hallmarks of the disease bit.ly/4kxcmf6

The Saint Louis Science Center / WashU St. Louis Neuroscience Outreach invite you to Up Late: Experience Sound on July 19 where @washu.edu ‬grad students will be among the presenters testing the limits of human hearing. #WashUNeuroCommunity

For tickets and more information, visit slsc.org/up-late

Sleep data from wearable device may help predict preterm birth An interdisciplinary research team at Washington University in St. Louis has found that variability in sleep patterns in people experiencing pregnancy can effectively predict preterm birth.

A collaboration among Ben Warner and Chenyang Lu at the McKelvey School of Engineering along with Sarah England and Peinan Zhao at WashU OBGYN shows sleep patterns in people experiencing pregnancy can effectively predict preterm birth.

@washu.bsky.social
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A unified theory of the mind In a new paper with implications for preventing Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological disorders, Keith Hengen, an associate professor of biology, suggests a new comprehensive approach to understa...

Keith Hengen @washuartsci.bsky.social notes that “criticality” - the tipping point between order & chaos - is the key to understanding how the brain works, & how to keep it free from Alzheimer’s and other diseases.

Woodrow Shew @uarkansas.bsky.social

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