Newsroom Stories

ShaughnessyPoet Brenda Shaughnessy will read from her work at 8 p.m. Thursday, March 5, in Hurst Lounge, Room 201, Duncker Hall, on Washington University’s Danforth Campus. Her collection titled “Human Dark with Sugar” is one of five finalists for the 2008 National Book Critics Circle Award in poetry.

Differences in the way they use their genes cause different strains of the E. coli bacterium to take on different hues.Bacteria that cause urinary tract infections (UTIs) make more tools for stealing from their host than friendly versions of the same bacteria found in the gut, researchers at the School of Medicine and the University of Washington have found. The tools, compounds called siderophores, allow the bad bacteria to steal iron from their hosts, making it easier for the bacteria to survive and reproduce.

Photo by Herb WeitmanHaving undergone a renovation, Steinberg Hall will take the spotlight at a rededication celebration Monday, Feb. 23, that includes renaming Steinberg Auditorium after Etta Eiseman Steinberg (left).

Brain cells long lumped into the same category have hidden differences that may contribute to the formation of tumors, according to a new study from researchers at the School of Medicine. Scientists showed that brain cells known as astrocytes make use of different genes depending on what region of the mouse brain they came from. These differences are too subtle to overtly mark them as distinct cell types, but substantial enough to make it easier for the cells to multiply more in response to genetic changes that increase cancer risk.

The inauguration of the first African-American president was a milestone in American race relations, but to most members of a minority, the judgment that the U.S. is now a post-racial society is quite premature. On February 25, at 4 p.m. in the Danforth University Center, several WUSTL students and faculty will gather to lead a conversation about race and identity. The Assembly Series event, free and open to the public, will be held in the Center’s Fun Room.

The Children’s Discovery Institute has awarded 15 new research grants, bringing the total investment in finding cures and treatments for devastating childhood diseases to more than $11.5 million since 2006. The new awards, which began Feb. 1, total just over $4 million and were given to 15 researchers in seven departments at the School of […]

Each year in the United States, doctors start about 2 million patients on warfarin (Coumadin™), an anticoagulant drug that’s notoriously hard to administer. Now a study from the International Warfarin Pharmacogenetics Consortium (IWPC), which includes researchers from the School of Medicine, confirms that using a patient’s genetic information can make it easier to get the warfarin dose right.

Robert W. Sussman, Ph.D., professor of anthropology in Arts & Sciences, delivered “A Comparative Overview of Primate Social Organization” during the annual AAAS meeting in Chicago.

Global warming and environmental sustainability are concerns that fit neatly within the precepts of religious naturalism, said Ursula Goodenough, Ph.D., professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Chicago last week.

The Center for the Humanities in Arts & Sciences has announced its spring 2010 Faculty Fellows. The recipients are Asad Ahmed, Ph.D., assistant professor of Arabic with a joint appointment in the Department of Asian & Near Eastern Languages & Literatures and in the Jewish, Islamic and Near Eastern Studies Program; Angela Miller, Ph.D., professor […]