Newsroom Stories

Patrick S. Moreton, Ph.D., has been promoted to associate dean at the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis, announced Mahendra R. Gupta, Ph.D., dean and the Geraldine J. and Robert L. Virgil Professor of Accounting and Management.

Photo by Tim ParkerSreenivasa Jonnalagadda, M.D., and J. Christopher Eagon, M.D., performing the first TOGA procedure in the United States.Doctors at the School of Medicine have performed the first non-surgical procedure in the United States that restricts the size of the stomach to treat obesity. The investigational procedure was performed under direct endoscopic visualization with specialized instruments passed into the stomach through the mouth. The first U.S. patient received the treatment on July 23 at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis.

Absence may make the heart grow fonder, but endurance exercise seems to make it younger. According to a study conducted at the School of Medicine, older people who did endurance exercise training for about a year ended up with metabolically much younger hearts. The researchers also showed that by one metabolic measure, women benefited more than men from the training.

The Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) at the School of Medicine will lead a six-year, $16 million international research collaboration dedicated to understanding inherited forms of Alzheimer’s disease. The National Institute on Aging (NIA) will fund the project.

Barry Sleckman, associate professor of pathology and immunology, has been named director of the Division of Laboratory and Genomic Medicine at the School of Medicine. The appointment was announced by Skip Virgin, Edward Mallinckrodt Professor and head of Pathology and Immunology.

Tracy K. SmithFour faculty members from the 2008 Callaloo Creative Writing Workshops will read from their poetry and fiction at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 6. Launched in 1976, Callaloo is the premier African-American and African literary journal, publishing a rich mixture of fiction, poetry, plays, critical essays, interviews, and visual art from the African diaspora. The annual Callaloo Creative Writing Workshops — hosted this year by Washington University from Aug. 3 to 16 —are designed to assist new and developing writers by providing intensive and individual instruction in the writing of fiction and poetry.

Surcharges — additional fees such as shipping and handling — are unwelcome but common charges that can shoot up the cost of online and catalog shopping. Yet how many of us base our purchasing decision on these niggling fees? A lot more than you might think. New research conducted by Amar Cheema, Ph.D., assistant professor of marketing at Washington University in St. Louis, holds important implications for businesses and their pricing practices.

The waters are receding, but the consequences of flooding in surrounding areas are only beginning to surface. These consequences are not just in physical and financial damage, but major indoor and outdoor health threats to children and their families, including disease-carrying mosquitoes and allergy-irritating mold.

An interdisciplinary team of researchers led by Karen L. Wooley, Ph.D., the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor in Arts & Sciences, is a step closer to delivering cancer-killing drugs to pediatric brain tumors.

Photo by David KilperDan Giammar, Ph.D., associate professor of energy, environmental and chemical engineering, and Nevin Peeples, a senior at St. Louis University High School, look at reactors used to study lead concentrations in drinking water. Giammar is mentoring Peeples, one of 83 high-school students participating in this year’s Students and Teachers as Research Scientists (STARS) program.