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A $450,000 grant from The Henry Luce Foundation will boost the experiential learning opportunities provided by the Interdisciplinary Environmental Clinic, through which students provide pro bono legal and technical services to environmental and community organizations.

The list of reasons you shouldn’t smoke has gotten longer. Researchers at the School of Medicine are reporting that smoking interferes with ligament healing. Each year in the United States there are more than 20 million reported ligament injuries, and MCL injuries — which affect a ligament supporting the knee joint — are the most common. Studying mice with MCL injuries, the team discovered cigarette smoking impairs the recruitment of cells to the injury site and delays healing following ligament repair surgery.

Women who get most of their daily calcium from food have healthier bones than women whose calcium comes mainly from supplemental tablets, say researchers at the School of Medicine. Surprisingly, this is true even though the supplement takers have higher average calcium intake.

An X-ray of a case of scoliosis.Physicians have recognized scoliosis, the abnormal curvature of the spine, since the time of Hippocrates, but its causes have remained a mystery — until now. Researchers at the School of Medicine and collaborating institutions have discovered a gene that underlies the condition, which affects about three percent of all children. The finding lays the groundwork for determining how the genetic defect leads to the C- and S-shaped curves that characterize scoliosis.

An exhibit of 29 iron sculptures by the Israeli artist Orna Ben-Ami is on display at Washington University School of Medicine through fall 2007. The sculptures can be viewed in the Farrell Learning and Teaching Center, Olin Residence Hall, Bernard Becker Medical Library, McDonnell Pediatric Research building, and other locations around campus.

Craig J. Nickels, co-founder of Alignment Capital Group, joined the Washington University Investment Management Company as director of private markets effective June 1.

The newly established International Center for Advanced Renewable Energy and Sustainability (I-CARES) at Washington University in St. Louis will encourage international collaborative research on energy and environmental issues by working closely with a global partnership of leading universities forged recently by the University’s McDonnell International Scholars Academy.

The following text was excerpted from a speech by Washington University Chancellor Emeritus William H. Danforth, M.D. He was recognized in May with the Christopher Hobler Spirit of Hope Award from Hope Happens, an organziation supporting the Hope Center for Neurological Disorders at Washington University.

The International Center for Advanced Renewable Energy and Sustainability (I-CARES) at Washington University will operate under the direction of Himadri B. Pakrasi, Ph.D., the George William and Irene Koechig Freiberg professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, and professor of energy in the School of Engineering.

Pamela BuellPamela Buell, a 30-year veteran of higher education development, has been named associate vice chancellor and director of medical alumni and development programs at Washington University in St. Louis.