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Yehuda Ben-Shahar, PhD, assistant professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, has received a three-year, $150,000 fellowship in neurosciences from the Esther A. & Joseph Klingenstein Fund. … Jeffrey I. Gordon, MD, the Robert L. Glaser Professor of Pathology and Immunology and professor of developmental biology and of medicine, has received five-year, $1,687,200 grant from […]

The New York Times Effects of concussions on children 09/22/2010 Because of the physiology of the young brain, children who suffer a concussion need “not only physical rest but also almost complete brain rest,’’ said Dr. Mark Halstead, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Washington University in St. Louis and lead author of the first […]

Risa Zwerling Wrighton (center) greets Elaine Greenbaum during the Woman’s Club of Washington University’s Fall Welcome Lunch at Harbison House Sept. 14. The club, which is celebrating its centennial in 2010, offers members opportunities to form friendships and grow intellectually through luncheons, lectures, tours and programs.

Approximately 1,600 members of the Class of 2014 arrived on campus this past August. Nearly all the freshmen graduated in the top 5 percent or 10 percent of their high school class, and more than 60 percent traveled at least 500 miles from their hometowns to WUSTL. “We were impressed with their talents and abilities, as they stood out among the finest students in their high schools around the world,” says Julie Shimabukuro, director of admissions.

“Japan Embodied: New Approaches to Japanese Studies,” is a four-semester Mellon Sawyer Seminar Series that examines the way the body has been discussed, experienced, and imagined in Japanese culture. The first seminar begins at 3 p.m. Friday, Sept. 24, in Room 18, Busch Hall. The seminars, which are free and open to the public, will continue with events each semester through spring 2012.

CBS News Alzheimer’s brain tangles offer clue to worsening If scientists could figure out how to lower tau levels, it might slow dementia, says senior researcher Alison Goate of Washington University in St. Louis. The only available medications temporarily ease symptoms but don’t slow the disease. Goate’s work is a first step at identifying genetic […]

Acclaimed author Jonathan Safron Foer, whose latest book, Eating Animals, chronicles his lifelong journey toward vegetarianism, will be on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 30, in Graham Chapel (please note that this is a location change.) The Assembly Series lecture, co-sponsored by University Libraries, the Campus Bookstore and the senior honorary Mortar Board, is free and open to the public.

Henry L. “Roddy” Roediger III, PhD, received the Arts & Sciences Distinguished Leadership Award and William E. Wallace, PhD, received the David Hadas Teaching Award during Arts & Sciences’ annual faculty reception. Gary S. Wihl, PhD, dean of the faculty of Arts & Sciences and the Lewin Distinguished Professor in the Humanities, presented the awards and introduced new faculty at the reception, which also recognized the start of the new academic year.

Washington University Medical Center is continuing to improve lighting around campus sidewalks this fall.

Associated Press A new clue in solving Alzheimer’s puzzle 09/20/2010 That sticky gunk coating Alzheimer’s patients’ brains gets all the notoriety, but another culprit is gaining renewed attention. A second protein called tau seems to signal how aggressive the mind-robbing disease will be. Researchers discovered that patients with mild Alzheimer’s and high levels of tau […]