Researchers at the School of Medicine have identified “broadly neutralizing” antibodies that protect against infection by multiple, distantly related alphaviruses – including Chikungunya virus – that cause fever and debilitating joint pain. The discovery, in mice, lays the groundwork for a single vaccine or antibody-based treatment against many different alphaviruses.

Washington University has received a two-year, $1.6 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The grant will be used to test a novel methodology to measure social structures that affect adoption of modern contraceptives in rural Ethiopia. Wolfgang Munar, MD, of the Brown School and the Institute for Public Health, is the primary investigator.

The back-and-forth decisions of a Utah juvenile court judge last week regarding the foster child of a lesbian couple expose the possible limits of the Supreme Court’s ruling this summer on gay marriage, said the School of Law’s Susan Appleton, JD, a national expert in family law.