Study supports theory that sleep is important for learning, memory

Photo by Noah Devereau, Post-DispatchSleeping fruit flies pictured through a microscopeMuch like humans, fruit flies sleep at night and take midday naps. They also respond to stimulants like we do, and their young sleep a lot more than adults. A new study, using fruit flies as test subjects, shows that sleep is important for learning and memory and that the need for sleep is tied to memory genes.

Rankings of WUSTL by News Media

Below is a link to the Washington University news release about the U.S. News & World Report undergraduate rankings for 2004-05: http://news-info.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/3627.html To view a full listing of U.S. News magazine, book and Web-only rankings for 2004-05, please visit the U.S. News & World Report site: http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/rankindex_brief.php

Rankings of WUSTL by News Media

Below is a link to the Washington University news release about the U.S. News & World Report undergraduate rankings for 2004-05: http://news-info.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/3627.html To view a full listing of U.S. News magazine, book and Web-only rankings for 2004-05, please visit the U.S. News & World Report site: http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/rankindex_brief.php

September 2006 Radio Service

Listed below are this month’s featured news stories. • Better memory performance (week of Sept. 6) • Predicting the spread of cancer (week of Sept. 13) • Curing diabetes in rats (week of Sept. 20) • Treating diabetes (week of Sept. 27)

Kelly named director of cardiovascular division

KellyDaniel Kelly has been named director of the Division of Cardiovascular Diseases in the Department of Medicine at the School of Medicine. Kelly is the Alumni Endowed Professor of Cardiovascular Diseases and professor of medicine, of pediatrics and of molecular biology and pharmacology and a cardiologist at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

Test can predict spread of eye cancer to liver

Gene expression mapScientists at the School of Medicine have developed a method to predict whether melanoma of the eye will spread to the liver, where it quickly turns deadly. They also believe the molecular screening test may one day help determine the prognosis of patients with some types of skin melanoma. The researchers found that a particular molecular signature — a pattern of activation of a group of genes in the tumor cells — accurately predicts risk for metastasis.

Pathway toward gene silencing described in plants

Olga Pontes is Going FISHin’.Biologists at Washington University in St. Louis have made an important breakthrough in understanding a pathway plant cells take to silence unwanted or extra genes using short bits of RNA. Basically, they have made it possible to see where, and how, the events in the pathway unfold within the cell, and seeing is believing, as the old saying goes. Craig Pikaard, Ph.D., Washington University professor of biology in Arts & Sciences and his collaborators have described the roles that eight proteins in Arabidopsis plants play in a pathway that brings about DNA methylation, an epigenetic function that involves a chemical modification of cytosine, one of the four chemical subunits of DNA. More…
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