Washington University is launching the Quick Start License, a new tool that helps clear the path for faculty and staff to launch startup companies and accelerate the pace of bringing innovations to the marketplace.

The Food and Drug Administration has approved for testing in people a nanoparticle-based imaging agent jointly developed at the School of Medicine and collaborating institutions. The imaging agent may illuminate dangerous plaque in arteries, and doctors hope to use it to identify patients at high risk of stroke.

​John Schmidt, a senior in Arts & Sciences, is the white playwright behind this weekend’s Black Anthology. He also is an editor for Student Life, writer and director for Lunar New Year, a residential advisor and an opera singer. Schmidt says his “listening ear” helps him in his roles.

The Hawthorn Leadership School for Girls is moving closer to reality. The school is to open this fall to sixth- and seventh-grade young women and ultimately will serve as a middle and high school. The brainchild of Mary Danforth Stillman will operate as a free public charter school in a former school building on North Kingshighway near Sherman Park.