Author: Kelly Wiese Niemeyer

The U.S. and university flags over Brookings Hall are lowered to half-staff in memory of U.S. Rep. Elijah E. Cummings through Friday, Oct. 18. Cummings, of Maryland, died Oct. 17, 2019, at age 68.

A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine contains overarching goals and associated recommendations that health-care systems, government agencies and others should implement to better integrate patients’ social needs into health-care delivery. The Brown School’s Sean Joe was on the committee that developed the report.

David H. Gutmann, MD, PhD, the Donald O. Schnuck Family Professor and vice chair for research affairs in the Department of Neurology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has received the Abhijit Guha Award from the Society for Neuro-Oncology and the Section on Tumors of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons/Congress of Neurological Surgeons.

David Holtzman, MD, the Andrew B. and Gretchen P. Jones Professor at Washington University School of Medicine, has received the August M. Watanabe Prize in Translational Research from the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute. He was recognized for his work uncovering the causes of Alzheimer’s disease and translating an understanding of its basic biology into potential therapies.

Parking & Transportation Services at Washington University in St. Louis is reminding the campus community of the latest changes to Metro bus routes; parking during high-volume events such as Parents and Family Weekend; and vehicle storage options in advance of the holidays. 

Physician-scientist and rheumatologist John P. Atkinson, MD, the Samuel B. Grant Professor of Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been awarded the Presidential Gold Medal by the American College of Rheumatology.

David Gutmann, MD, PhD, the Donald O. Schnuck Family Professor of Neurology at the School of Medicine, has received a second Einstein Visiting Fellowship from the Berlin Institute of Health to study how immune cells in the brain known as microglia are linked to cancer, vision loss and behavioral problems in the disease neurofibromatosis type 1.

An immune cell that helps set the daily rhythms of the digestive system has been identified by researchers at the School of Medicine. The findings open the door to new treatments for digestive ailments targeting such cells.

Joseph Jez, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor and chair of biology in Arts & Sciences, along with two former researchers in his laboratory, P.A. Rea and R.E. Cahoon, was awarded a U.S. patent for engineered plants that could help detoxify, or remediate, soils contaminated with heavy metals.

The university’s Center for the Humanities in Arts & Sciences, along with other academic partners, received funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for an Africa fellowship program, aimed at enhancing research capacity for early-career humanities scholars. The application deadline is Nov. 11.