Author: Ken Duenke

Scientists who first established a link between obesity and the trillions of friendly microbes that live in the intestine now are investigating whether the organisms can contribute to the converse: severe malnutrition. Researchers at the School of Medicine, led by microbiologist Jeffrey Gordon, M.D., will study whether severely malnourished infants living in Malawi and Bangladesh have a different mix of intestinal microbes than healthy infants in the same areas, and whether those microbes might account for their illness. This three-year, $5.5 million project is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Stanford classics professor Richard Martin discusses Homeric poetry as a performance art in Ancient Greece, comparing it to modern rap, in the annual Assembly Series Biggs lecture at 4 p.m. on Thursday, April 9 in Steinberg Hall.

DehnerLouis P. “Pepper” Dehner, a faculty member at the School of Medicine, received the Distinguished Pathologist Award of the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology (USCAP) at the academy’s 2009 annual meeting. Held in Boston March 7-13, the meeting is the largest annual gathering of pathologists, and the Distinguished Pathologist Award is its highest honor.

Funding from the Missouri Life Sciences Research Fund, part of the 1998 state tobacco settlement, will establish the St. Louis Institute of Nanomedicine Working Group, a collaborative regional effort to apply advances in nanotechnology to the treatment of human diseases.

Henry L. “Roddy” Roediger III, Ph.D., the pre-eminent psychologist and expert on human memory, will give a talk for the Assembly Series’ Phi Beta Kappa Lecture at 4 p.m. Monday, March 30, in Graham Chapel.

Senior Divya Srinath, the 2008-09 WUSTL Interfaith Youth Core Fellow, will lead a group of University students, and students from Saint Louis University and Maryville University, in a national day of interfaith youth service March 29.

Photo by David KilperThe Jane and Whitney Harris St. Louis Community Service Award are given annually to a husband and wife dedicated to improving the St. Louis region through service, generosity and leadership. On Feb. 26, Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton bestowed the 10th Harris award on Barbara and Andrew Taylor.

For filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, “keeping it real” is more than just a phrase — it’s the philosophy that drives him to write, direct and star in his documentaries. Spurlock will be the featured speaker for the Assembly Series at 7 p.m. April 1 in Graham Chapel. The event, sponsored by Congress of the South 40, […]

Detectives on television shows often spray crime scenes with a compound called luminol to make blood glow. Researchers at the School of Medicine have applied the same compound to much smaller crime scenes: sites where the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues.

For filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, “keeping it real” is more than just a phrase — it’s the philosophy that drives him to write, direct and star in his documentaries. Spurlock will be the featured speaker for an Assembly Series program at 7 p.m., Wednesday, April 1 in Graham Chapel. The event, sponsored by Congress of the South 40, is free and open to the public. No tickets are required.