Science & Technology

A team of researchers in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis has established the Synthetic Biology Manufacturing of Advanced Materials Research Center to work across disciplines to find nature-inspired alternatives to plastics.

Young-Shin Jun, a professor of energy, environmental and chemical engineering at the McKelvey School of Engineering, has been awarded a $1.4 million U.S. Department of Energy grant to turn concentrated waste from water purification systems into valuable products for industrial use.

Robert Charity and Lee Sobotka in Arts & Sciences described Nitrogen-9 in Physical Review Letters. The Department of Energy Office of Science recently awarded the scientists $1.5 million to continue their studies of nuclear reactions and structure for the next three years.

Ashlynn Berry is one of 60 graduate students from across the country — and the only one in Missouri — selected to participate in the Department of Energy’s Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) fellowship program.

“Digital Learning and Teaching in Chemistry,” co-edited by Gabriela Mirowitz in Arts & Sciences, features WashU chemistry instructors and explores high-tech approaches to learning beyond the lab.

Multi-omics leverages the power of several different “omics” data types at once to build a detailed picture of factors that contribute to human health and disease. Under a $19.2 million grant award, Gary Patti, in Arts & Sciences, and Ting Wang, at the School of Medicine, will manage a new hub for multi-omics analyses at Washington University.

Chenfeng Ke, an incoming associate professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences, developed a unique design for tough but stretchable hydrogels, reported Aug. 23 in the journal Chem. The new material is both flexible and durable.

Gary Patti, in Arts & Sciences and the School of Medicine, has won the 2023 American Chemical Society Midwest Award. This annual award recognizes outstanding achievements in chemistry in the Midwest region.

Researchers led by Gary J. Patti in Arts & Sciences established a method to watch what nutrients are used at which rates spatially throughout a tumor. The new approach offers clues for potential treatment strategies.

Lee Sobotka, a professor of chemistry and of physics in Arts & Sciences, will moderate an April 26 technical forum to explain the science behind recent reports of radioactive substances at Jana Elementary school in Hazelwood, Mo. Saint Louis University’s College for Public Health and Social Justice is hosting the event.