Author: Ken Duenke

A test that reveals brain changes believed to be at the heart of Alzheimer’s disease has bolstered the theory that education can delay the onset of the dementia and cognitive decline that are characteristic of the disorder. Scientists at the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at the School of Medicine found that some study participants who appeared to have the brain plaques long associated with Alzheimer’s disease still received high scores on tests of their cognitive ability. Participants who did well on the tests were likely to have spent more years in school.

Mark Twain, a skeptic of the idea of free will, argues in his essay “What Is Man?” that humans do not command their minds or the opinions they form. Twain’s views get a boost this week from researchers at the School of Medicine and University of Chieti, Italy. In Nature Neuroscience, scientists report that a simple decision-making task does not involve the frontal lobes, where many of the higher aspects of human cognition, including self-awareness, are thought to originate.

At the annual Founders Day ceremony this Saturday, Nov. 8, in America’s Center, the Alumni Association will present the Distinguished Alumni Award to six individuals who are being honored for outstanding contributions to their profession, society and alma mater.

The Washington University-Fudan University Executive MBA program retained its distinction as one of the top 10 Executive MBA programs in the world, ranking eighth worldwide, and first in mainland China for the third year in a row, according to the 2008 rankings released late last month by the Financial Times.

Keith Wailoo will talk about health care disparities in the Assembly Series lecture “How Cancer Crossed the Color Line: Race and Disease in America” at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 11, in Rebstock Hall, Room 215.

Award-winning writer and critic Daniel Mendelsohn, Ph.D., will give this year’s annual Holocaust Memorial Lecture at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 12, in Graham Chapel.

Acute myelogenous leukemia cellsFor the first time, scientists have decoded the complete DNA of a cancer patient and traced her disease – acute myelogenous leukemia – to its genetic roots. A large research team at the Genome Sequencing Center and the Siteman Cancer Center at the School of Medicine sequenced the genome of the patient – a woman in her 50s who ultimately died of her disease – and the genome of her leukemia cells, to identify genetic changes unique to her cancer.

The tonsils and lymphoid tissues in the intestinal tract that help protect the body from external pathogens are the home base of a rare immune cell newly identified by researchers at the School of Medicine. The researchers indicate that the immune cells could have a therapeutic role in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.

WailooKeith Wailoo will share his insights on today’s health care disparities in his talk “How Cancer Crossed the Color Line: Race and Disease in America” at 4 p.m. on Tues., Nov. 11 in Rebstock Hall room 215.

Award-winning writer and critic, Daniel Mendelsohn, will give this year’s annual Holocaust Memorial Lecture. His talk, “Finding ‘The Lost’: A Journey into the History, Family and Judaism,” will focus on his quest to unearth the stories of his family members who perished during World War II. In his 2006 best-selling memoir, “The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million” Mendelsohn tells the story of his grandfather’s brother, who stayed behind in Ukraine and was killed in the Holocaust after his siblings had emigrated to America.