Author: Ken Duenke

Scientists have identified the first biochemical marker linked to sleep loss, an enzyme in saliva known as amylase, which increases in activity when sleep deprivation is prolonged. Researchers hope to make amylase the first of a panel of biomarkers that will aid diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders and may one day help assess the risk of falling asleep at the wheel of a car or in other dangerous contexts.

This is the final issue of the Record this calendar year. The Record will resume publication Jan. 18, 2007. We wish everyone happy holidays!

Jeffrey Marlow is among the 43 young Americans to receive a 2007 Marshall Scholarship, which provides full support for two or three years of study at any British university toward a second bachelor’s degree or an advanced degree. Marlow, a senior in earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences, is WUSTL’s first Marshall Scholar since 1993.

The University is prepared for NIH’s electronic grant filing mandate.

A new study of plant cell walls offers promise for more efficient ethanol production with less waste. Erik E. Nielsen, Ph.D., adjunct professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, and his team make discoveries in a lightly researched area.

A great deal of research connects nutrition with cancer risk. Overweight people are at higher risk of developing post-menopausal breast cancer, endometrial cancer, colon cancer, kidney cancer and a certain type of esophageal cancer. Now preliminary findings from researchers at the School of Medicine suggest that eating less protein may help protect against certain cancers that are not directly associated with obesity.

Photo by Mary ButkusEmil R. Unanue, M.D. (left), and Michael W. Sherraden, Ph.D., receive Faculty Achievement Awards Dec. 2 at the Farrell Learning and Teaching Center.

The Asthma and Allergic Diseases Cooperative Research Center will fund research focused on how the immune system contributes to asthma.

The School of Medicine researchers have been named to the 2006 Scientific American 50.

School of Medicine researchers found that a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug administered at typically nontoxic doses significantly increased liver damage in mice with a mutant human gene.