Author: Talia Ogliore

A new study with zebrafish shows that a deadly form of skin cancer — melanoma — alters the metabolism of healthy tissues elsewhere in the body. The research led by chemist Gary Patti suggests that these other tissues could potentially be targeted to help treat cancer.

Dani Wilder, a December 2020 graduate of the biochemistry track of biology in Arts & Sciences, will receive the Ralph S. Quatrano Prize. It is awarded to the thesis showing the greatest evidence of creativity in design, research methodology or broader scientific implications.

Ella Ludwig, a senior majoring in biology in Arts & Sciences, will receive this year’s Spector Prize in recognition of academic excellence and outstanding undergraduate achievement in research.

New research from biologists in Arts & Sciences shows how animals and bacteria differ in the enzyme they use to attach heme to the cytochrome. The results help illuminate a promising target for new antibiotics.

Periodical cicadas are above ground for only a handful of days every 17 years. Human-induced rapid environmental change is altering the world they will briefly encounter, according to Brett Seymoure, a postdoctoral fellow with the Living Earth Collaborative at Washington University in St. Louis.

Joseph A. Fournier, assistant professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences, won a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation. Fournier’s research program focuses on characterizing the dynamics and mechanisms of fast chemical reactions.

Michael W. Friedlander, professor emeritus of physics in Arts & Sciences, died April 29, 2021, in St. Louis. He was 92.

William M. Boothby, professor emeritus of mathematics in Arts & Sciences, died Feb. 14 in Nashville, Tenn. He was 102.

Some plants like ginkgo trees have either male or female flowers, not both. Susanne Renner, honorary professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, reviewed the genetic basis of sex determination in plants for Nature Plants and will guest-edit a special issue of a Royal Society journal on the topic.

Sometimes overshadowed by neighboring Amazon forests, the forests of the Andes Mountains are helping to protect the planet by acting as a carbon sink, absorbing carbon dioxide and keeping some of this climate-altering gas out of circulation, according to biologists in Arts & Sciences and their partners from a Living Earth Collaborative working group.