Author: Ken Duenke

The Washington University volleyball team captured its 10th NCAA Division III national title Nov. 21 by defeating top-ranked Juniata College, 3-1.

The Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology is one of 10 programs nationwide to receive a $2.4 million grant to establish a scholars program. The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development grant establishes the medical school as a Women’s Reproductive Health Research Career Development Center.

Pancreatic tumors can be identified by a readily detectable marker that shows promise as a basis for immune therapy against the disease, according to research at the School of Medicine.

Research into Alzheimer’s disease seems an unlikely approach to yield a better way to fight urinary tract infections (UTIs), but that’s what scientists at the School of Medicine, and elsewhere report. One element links the disparate areas of research: amyloids, which are fibrous, sticky substances.

In conjunction with World AIDS Day, the School of Medicine’s Infectious Diseases Clinic will offer free, confidential HIV testing Monday, Nov. 30 – Thursday, Dec. 3, from 9 am – 4 pm. No appointment is necessary. Participants will receive a rapid HIV test using a finger prick to obtain a drop of blood. Results will be available 20 minutes after testing.

Studies have suggested that asthma patients with a specific genetic variation might not respond as well to certain treatments as those with a different variation. But a new study in this week’s edition of The Lancet shows that patients with either variation respond to combination treatment, and that this treatment should be continued, School of Medicine researchers report.

Iowa StateIn recent years, scientists have decoded the DNA of humans and a menagerie of creatures but none with genes as complex as a stalk of corn, the latest genome to be unraveled. A team of scientists led by The Genome Center at the School of Medicine published the completed corn genome in the Nov. 20 journal Science, an accomplishment that will speed efforts to develop better crop varieties to meet the world’s growing demands for food, livestock feed and fuel.

A gold nanocage devised in the laboratory of Younan Xia, Ph.D, the James M. McKelvey Professor in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, responds to light, opening to empty its contents and then resealing when the light is turned off. The discovery could make a big difference in treating diseases.

Photo by Michael JacobThat’s the advice given by Vikram Pandit (right), CEO of Citigroup, to students at the Olin Business School gathered at the Knight Center Nov. 9. Pandit offered career advice and thoughts on the finance industry to an audience of more than 300 Olin students, faculty and alumni.

For years, it has been widely assumed that older adults may experience memory loss and other cognitive problems following surgery. But a new study by School of Medicine researchers questions that assumption. In the 575 patients they studied, the investigators did not detect any long-term cognitive declines attributable to surgery.