Author: Ken Duenke

It’s a busy, event-filled week for the Assembly Series, as four nationally-renowned speakers — a noted plant biologist, an Academy Award-winning filmmaker, an editor of a national newspaper and an acclaimed humorist — all will speak on campus.

A national review has revealed that positron emission tomography (PET) scans of cancer patients led clinicians to change treatment plans for more than a third of the patients, scientists report this week in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Women over age 65 have a harder time preserving muscle than men of the same age, which probably affects their ability to stay strong and fit, according to research conducted at the School of Medicine and the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom. For the first time, scientists have shown it is more difficult for older women to replace muscle that is lost naturally because of key differences in the way their bodies process food.

Current treatments allow most HIV-infected individuals to live healthy, productive lives, but they can also increase risk for cardiovascular problems. Now researchers at the School of Medicine have found a possible explanation. They discovered that the heart doesn’t slow down as quickly after exercise in patients taking highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) for HIV.

Pamela Soltis, a distinguished scholar in angiosperms, or flowering plants, will discuss the importance of “Conservation Genetics and the Preservation of Plant Biodiversity” for an Assembly Series program at 2 p.m. Friday, March 28, in Steinberg Hall.

Calvin Trillin, the versatile veteran writer, journalist and humorist, will appear at Washington University at 4 p.m. Thursday, April 3, in Steinberg Auditorium as part of the Assembly Series. His talk is the keynote address for the upcoming symposium, “Consuming News: Newspapers & Print Culture in Early Modern Europe (1500 – 1800)” sponsored by the German department in Arts & Sciences.

“West Bank Story” is a little film about a big subject, uses music and comedy to deliver a serious message, and was created by a young man wise beyond his years. That person – Ari Sandel – will show his Oscar-winning film short and discuss how he came to make it at 4 p.m. Tuesday, April 1 in Lab Sciences Auditorium. It is free and open to the public.

MichalskiJeff Michalski, professor of radiation oncology, has been named interim head of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, effective April 1. Michalski is replacing Simon Powell, who has taken a position as head of radiation oncology at Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

Photo by Robert BostonLinghui Zeng, M.D., Ph.D. (right), a postdoctoral research associate in neurology, shows mentor Michael Wong, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of neurology, her winning poster.

Among the approximately 23,000 genes found in human DNA, scientists currently estimate that there may be as few as 50 to 100 that have no counterparts in other species. Expand that comparison to include the primate family known as hominoids, and there may be several hundred unique genes.