Newsroom Stories

A class of drugs that are used in premature infants to treat chronic lung damage can cause damage in the brain. New research at the School of Medicine suggests the drugs may cause cognitive and motor-control problems even when they are given before birth.

Even seasoned doctors have a difficult time diagnosing pneumonia in hospitalized patients breathing with the assistance of a ventilator. That’s because a patient’s underlying illness often skews laboratory test results and masks pneumonia’s symptoms. Now, researchers at the School of Medicine report they have validated the use of gene chip technology to rapidly and accurately detect pneumonia associated with ventilator use in hospitalized patients.

A Weight Watchers at Work program is beginning Nov. 17 on the Danforth Campus. The program will run for 12 weeks, through February 2, 2009.

Celebrated food writer Michael Pollan will receive the Washington University Humanities Medal as part of “Celebrating Our Books, Recognizing Our Authors,” WUSTL’s seventh annual faculty book colloquium. The biannual award is given to a distinguished scholar, writer or artist whose career merits special recognition for excellence and courage. The inaugural recipient was Turkish novelist and […]

A new weekly “Tuesday Tea at 3” program begins Tuesday, Nov. 18, in the Danforth University Center (DUC). Faculty, staff and students are invited to come to the DUC each Tuesday afternoon from 3-5 p.m. for free tea, snacks and conversation. “I think this will be a great opportunity for members of the campus community […]

The “Wonderful Wednesdays” sale Nov. 19 at the Bear Necessities store in Wohl Student Center will be the last before Thanksgiving.

Biologists at Washington University in St. Louis have made major headway in explaining a mechanism by which plant cells silence potentially harmful genes. A team led by Craig Pikaard, Ph.D., WUSTL professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, has published a paper this month in Cell, that explains how RNA polymerases work together to use the non-coding region of DNA to prevent destructive, virus-derived genes from being activated.

In their efforts to understand the cells involved in normal bowel function, researchers at the School of Medicine have found that a common nutrient — Vitamin A, or its metabolite, retinoic acid — has a direct effect on the development of nerve cells, or neurons, in the bowel wall that control gastrointestinal function.

Photo by Robert BostonSchaffer tackles the complications of diabetes.

At recent Board of Trustees meetings, the following faculty members were promoted with tenure, appointed with tenure or granted tenure effective July 1, 2008, unless otherwise noted. Appointment with tenure Ross C. Brownson, Ph.D., as professor of social work Kathryn Anne Dean, as associate professor of architecture, effective Aug. 1, with tenure effective Oct. 3. […]