Newsroom Stories

Researchers at the School of Medicine have created a line of fruit flies that may someday help shed light on the mechanisms that cause insomnia in humans. The flies, which only get a small fraction of the sleep of normal flies, resemble insomniac humans in several ways.

Joe Angeles/WUSTL Photo The Living Learning Center An opening ceremony for what could be one of North America’s greenest buildings — a flagship building on the cutting edge of sustainable design and energy efficiency — was held May 29 at Washington University in St. Louis’ new Living Learning Center at the university’s Tyson Research Center. The Living Learning Center is a 2,900-square-foot facility built to meet the Living Building Challenge — designed to be the most stringent green building rating system in the world — of the Cascadia Region Green Building Council (CRGBC). No building has met its standard yet, but the Living Learning Center is in the running to be the first in North America.

A drug with potential to prevent epilepsy caused by a genetic condition may also help prevent more common forms of epilepsy caused by brain injury, according to researchers at the School of Medicine. Scientists found that the FDA-approved drug rapamycin blocks brain changes believed to cause seizures in rats.

The Linda Presgrave Quintet will launch Washington University’s summer Jazz at Holmes Series from 8 to 10 p.m. Thursday, June 11. The series will feature six free concerts — in a relaxed, coffeehouse-style setting — by professional jazz musicians from around St. Louis and abroad. Presgrave, a pianist and former St. Louisan, lives and performs in New York City, where she recently released In Your Eyes, her debut CD.

Genetically speaking, what distinguishes a man from a mouse? U.S. and European scientists provide the answer in this week’s PLoS Biology. They have described the finished genome sequence of the mouse, which, after the human, is only the second mammal to have its complete genome decoded.

A flurry of recent research has documented that talking on a cell phone poses a dangerous distraction for drivers and others whose attention should be focused elsewhere. Now, a new study in the Journal of Environmental Psychology finds that just the ring of a cell phone may be equally distracting, especially when it comes in a classroom setting or includes a familiar song as a ringtone.

Recession-related pressures on supply chain management will be the topic of the first industry conference sponsored by the Boeing Center for Technology, Information and Management (BCTIM) at the Olin Business School, Washington University in St. Louis, Wednesday, June 3, 2009.

Sawyer Want to take your children somewhere fun and educational this summer but money is tight? No problem, says a children’s play expert at Washington University in St. Louis. Your answer might even be as close as your own backyard. Video available.

EdmundowiczA procedure that uses heat generated by radio waves to treat Barrett’s esophagus, a condition caused by acid reflux (severe heartburn), can eliminate signs of the potentially cancer-causing disorder and reduce the risk that the disease will progress.

Similar to a pacemaker, the iPod-sized device is implanted under the skin near the collarbone.Some 15 million Americans have high blood pressure that can’t be controlled with medication, leaving them at high risk for early death, stroke, heart disease or kidney failure. Researchers at the School of Medicine are evaluating whether an investigational device can help these patients keep their blood pressure in check.