Newsroom Stories

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has designated the Center for Violence and Injury Prevention (CVIP) at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis as one of its newest Injury Control Research Centers (ICRC). Preventing child maltreatment, intimate partner violence, sexual violence, suicide and related injuries through community-based research and educational outreach is the goal of the Brown Center for Violence and Injury Prevention. The center is led by Melissa Jonson-Reid, Ph.D., associate professor at the Brown School. John Constantino, M.D., the Blanche F. Ittleson Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at the Washington University School of Medicine, serves as co-director.

Parkinson’s disease is well-known for impairing movement and causing tremors, but many patients also develop other serious problems, including sleep disturbances and significant losses in cognitive function known as dementia. Now researchers at the School of Medicine have modeled Parkinson’s-associated dementia for the first time.

Nancy Morrow-Howell, Ph.D. the Ralph and Muriel Pumphrey Professor of Social Work and Stacey McCrary, project manager, both at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work, are winners of the prestigious Generations United 2009 Brabazon Award for Evaluation Research. Morrow-Howell and McCrary are being honored for their work evaluating Experience Corps, an award-winning organization that trains thousands of people over 55 to tutor children in urban public schools across the country.

CoburnWhether your child is going away to college this fall across town or across the country, there are more ways to keep in touch than ever before. With today’s ubiquitous cell phones and access to Twitter, Facebook and texting, it may seem as though your child has never left the house. For students, there is the ever-present possibility of an available parent at the end of a cordless tether, which has the potential to hinder the letting go process, claims an expert on the college transition at Washington University in St. Louis.

Scientists at the School of Medicine have identified a substance in the liver that helps process fat and glucose. That substance is a component of the common food additive lecithin, and researchers speculate it may one day be possible to use lecithin products to control blood lipids and reduce risk for diabetes, hypertension or cardiovascular disease using treatments delivered in food rather than medication.

Six new members joined the board of trustees at Washington University in St. Louis, according to Washington University Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton. Gregory H. Boyce, John F. Dains, Steven F. Leer, George Paz and Harry Seigle began their terms July 1. George P. Bauer began his term in December.

America has the potential to solve its energy crisis over the next decade, but doing so requires immediate investment in the development and deployment of clean energy technologies, says Mark S. Wrighton, chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis and vice chair of a new National Resource Council report on America’s energy challenges.

The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis has received a $50,000 grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., to support the exhibition Sharon Lockhart—Lunch Break. Organized by Sabine Eckmann, Ph.D., the museum’s director and chief curator, the exhibition will open Feb. 10, 2010, and remain on view through April 19.

Bernstein”Private employment provides less health insurance than believed,” says Merton C. Bernstein, a founding board member of the National Academy of Social Insurance and the Coles Professor of Law Emeritus at Washington University in St. Louis. Bernstein is available to discuss health insurance in the U.S.

Photo by Janet GumpertRemembering to take daily medications can be a challenge, but new research offers tips for strengthening those memories.Doing something unusual, like knocking on wood or patting yourself on the head, while taking a daily dose of medicine may be an effective strategy to help seniors remember whether they’ve already taken their daily medications, suggests new research from Washington University in St. Louis.