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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.

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.

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 […]

Washington University installed automatic external defibrillators (AEDs) in seven areas across the Danforth Campus Sept. 16 with a high volume of foot traffic. An AED is a computerized medical device that can monitor a person’s heart rhythm and can recognize when a distressed person requires a shock to re-establish a normal heart rhythm.

A search is under way to fill a new vice provost position in the Office of the Provost whose initial focus will be on diversity and faculty development, among other areas of university-wide importance. An advisory committee has been formed that will identify and recommend candidates from within the Washington University community.