Newsroom Stories

The annual Dean’s Update to the School of Medicine will be Oct. 29 from 2-3 p.m., and Nov. 4 from 10-11 a.m. in Connor Auditorium.

Photo by Robert BostonRehan Hasan, a third-year doctoral student in the Program in Physical Therapy, sings songs he wrote about relationships at the student coffeehouse.

Douglass C. North, Ph.D., the Spencer T. Olin Professor in Arts & Sciences, was fielding calls from around the world after this year’s winners of the Nobel Prize in economics were announced.

M. Kenton King, M.D., former dean of the School of Medicine, died Oct. 15, 2009, at his home in University City. He was 84.

A team of surgeons and oncologists at the Siteman Cancer Center at the School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital is aggressively tackling pancreatic cancer — one of the deadliest forms of cancer — and conducting clinical trials of innovative treatment regimens.

“A lot of people were horrified that it was the first time a political scientist got the prize,” says Douglass C. North in a video interview on the 2009 Nobel prize in economics. North North, a 1993 recipient of the prestigious award, defends this year’s winners, Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson, as pioneers in the New Institutional Economics that uses an interdisciplinary approach to research. Traditional economists who favor formal mathematical model-based theory are critical of the institutional approach and Nobel recognition of the social sciences versus pure economics. North talks about this year’s winners, their work and New Institutional Economics in accompanying video.

A new mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis closely resembles the paralyzing disorder in humans, School of Medicine researchers report.

The Washington University Medical Center is looking brighter thanks to new light fixtures installed on sidewalks throughout the campus.

CarneyDepression is common in patients with heart disease but antidepressants often aren’t effective in these patients. In a new approach, scientists at the School of Medicine gave patients antidepressants plus omega-3 fatty acids, which are known both for their heart benefits and for alleviating depression in some people. However, the combination therapy was no better than antidepressants alone, they report in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts will launch a new Master of Landscape Architecture program in Fall 2010, announced Bruce Lindsey, dean of the College of Architecture and the Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design. The program, which will offer both two- and three-year options leading to a professional MLA degree, will be led by Dorothée Imbert, a noted scholar as well as a practicing landscape architect, who is currently associate professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design Her appointment in the Sam Fox School will be effective Jan. 1, 2010.