Month: June 2016

New research from the School of Medicine suggests that mothers who eat high-fat, high-sugar diets can predispose multiple generations to metabolic problems, even if their offspring consume healthy diets.

As young people reach adulthood, preferences for sweet foods typically decline. But for people with obesity, research from the School of Medicine suggests that the drop-off may not be as steep and that the brain’s reward system operates differently in obese people than in thinner people. The findings are published in the journal Diabetes.

Aaron F. Bobick, dean of the School of Engineering & Applied Science, was installed as the James M. McKelvey Professor Jan. 21. Bobick joined the university July 1, 2015.

The Olin Business School announced that Ruthie Pyles will join the school as assistant dean and director of graduate programs admissions and financial aid.

New Alzheimer’s disease research details a technique that speedily measures levels in the brain of a damaging protein fragment, and insight into why mutations in a specific gene increase the risk of developing the disease. Both studies, from researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, are available online in The Journal of Experimental Medicine.

The U.S. and university flags over Brookings Hall are lowered to half-staff until sunset Thursday, June 16, as a mark of respect for those killed in the nightclub shooting June 12 in Orlando. Read the presidential proclamation. 

Philip W. Majerus, MD, a renowned hematologist and professor emeritus of medicine at the School of Medicine, died at his home in St. Louis June 8 after a long illness. He was 79.

Joseph R. Williamson, MD, a distinguished diabetes researcher and former professor of pathology at the School of Medicine, died June 9, 2016, in St. Louis after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. He was 84.

Caitlin Kelleher, the Hugo F. & Ina Champ Urbauer Career Development Associate Professor in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, focuses on how programming environments can support kids ages 10-17 to most effectively learn computer programming to help them develop problem-solving skills, express creativity and understand its relevance to nearly everything.

Examining databases of proteins’ 3-D shapes, scientists at School of Medicine have identified more than 850 DNA mutations that appear to be linked to cancer. The information may expand the number of cancer patients who can benefit from existing drugs. The study, published June 13 in Nature Genetics, detailed a list of the mutations and associated drugs that may work against them.