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Colorado Rockies All-Star pitcher Aaron Cook always has a spare rib for good luck. It’s not part of his pregame meal. The rib came out of his own body and sits in his locker. Cook suffered from Thoracic Outlet Syndrome (TOS), a condition in which the space between the collarbone and the uppermost rib gets cramped, pinching nerves, veins or arteries. Rather than cut his career short, he turned to WUSM surgeon Robert Thompson, one of the few doctors in the country using a surgical procedure that gets athletes back on the field.

Each year, the Department of Biology awards a prize in memory of Marion Smith Spector, a 1938 WUSTL graduate. This year, the Spector Prize was shared by two recipients, Jason Metcalf and Aashish Manglik.

Calling it “one of the great traditions of Washington University,” Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton announced during a news conference Nov. 19 that the University will host the 2008 vice presidential debate, scheduled for 8 p.m. CDT on Oct. 2. Video available.

Facts about the University’s people, academics, research, athletics and reputation.

If a new local company succeeds, cancer and drug researchers soon may have a novel, inexpensive and extremely precise method for monitoring cell activity. This could speed development of treatments and methods for diagnosing cancer as well as open up new areas of basic medical research. PixelEXX Systems, founded by scientists at Washington University, is developing a prototype imaging device in hopes of reaching the market in 2011.

Rendering of Shriners Hospital for ChildrenThe Shriners Hospital for Children broke ground July 3 on a new hospital at the Washington University Medical Center. This relocation will allow St. Louis Shriners Hospital to return to the medical school campus. The Shriners’ first area hospital opened in 1924 on Euclid Avenue on the medical school campus.

In a new study published in the journal Pediatrics, Paul T. Shattuck, Ph.D., professor of social work at Washington University in St. Louis, found that families with similar demographics and nature of their children’s special needs have different out-of-pocket health expenditures depending on the state in which they live. “This is one of the few studies that focuses on families’ costs when caring for children with special needs, rather than the overall cost for society as a whole,” he says. Shattuck notes that wealthier states tend to have a lower average extra cost for caring for a child with special needs. “At the low end, families in Mass. paid an average of $560 for out-of-pocket medical expenses,” he says. “At the high end, families in Georgia shouldered an average of $970 in additional care expenses.” Editor’s note: A complete rankings table is available.

The News & Information Web site at Washington University in St. Louis provides the images below for free use by media for purposes of news coverage of the exhibition Birth of the Cool: California Art, Design, and Culture, on view at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum Sept. 19, 2008, to Jan. 5, 2009. All […]

There’s a new and improved way for people to get involved with clinical trials at the School of Medicine — Volunteer for Health, the university’s organization for clinical study recruitment, is now using an improved web site backed by a more sophisticated database management system. Called the Research Participant Registry (RPR), the new system offers volunteers better access to clinical trials and gives researchers more powerful tools for recruiting participants.

A brief historical primer on the Athletic Complex, venue for the 2008 vice presidential debate, site of the first World Olympics in Western Hemisphere and site of the first nationally televised three-candidate presidential debate.