WUSTL helps critique national fire safety video

Washington University was one of 60 universities invited to participate in a People’s Burn Foundation (PBF) pilot study on a PBF-produced fire safety video. The Department of Environmental Health and Safety coordinated the project with the PBF. The video, titled “To Hell and Back III: The College Years,” aims to educate college and university students […]

Government service careers promoted by ‘Call to Serve’ grant

The University has received one of five $3,000 Call to Serve grants from the Partnership for Public Service to promote working in government service. “This grant will help students understand that working for the federal government is not only an exciting career path, but also a valuable way to make a difference in the future […]

‘Dr. Drew’ gives keynote for Sexual Responsibility Week

Physician, radio and television personality, health advocate and writer Drew Pinsky, M.D., will present “Loveline with Dr. Drew” at 6 p.m. Feb. 15 in the Laboratory Sciences Building Auditorium, Room 300. The talk is the keynote address for Sexual Responsibility Week, sponsored by the Student Health Advisory Committee, Student Union and Assembly Series.

1,000 human genomes to be sequenced

The School of Medicine will play a leading role in an international collaboration to sequence the genomes of 1,000 individuals by participating in the ambitious 1,000 Genomes Project, designed to create the most detailed picture to date of human genetic variation and assist in the identification of many genetic factors underlying common diseases.

Earth’s orbit creates more than a leap year

Image courtesy of NASAThe Earth’s orbital behaviors are responsible for more than just presenting us with a leap year every four years. According to Michael E. Wysession, Ph.D., associate professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, parameters such as planetary gravitational attractions, the Earth’s elliptical orbit around the sun and the degree of tilt of our planet’s axis with respect to its path around the sun, have implications for climate change and the advent of ice ages.

Moss protein plays role in Alzheimer’s disease

Preventing Alzheimer’s disease is a goal of Raphael Kopan, Ph.D., professor of molecular biology and pharmacology at the Washington University School of Medicine. The moss plant Physcomitrella patens, studied in the laboratory of Ralph S. Quatrano, Ph.D., the Spencer T. Olin Professor and chair of the biology department on WUSTL’s Danforth Campus, might inch Kopan toward that goal.

Bacterium sequenced makes rare form of chlorophyll

David Kilper/WUSTL PhotoRobert Blankenship, professor of biology and chemistry at Washington University in St. Louis, holds the cyanobacteria *Acaryochloris marina*, a rare bacterium that uses chlorophyll d for photosynthesis.Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis and Arizona State University have sequenced the genome of a rare bacterium that harvests light energy by making an even rarer form of chlorophyll, chlorophyll d. Chlorophyll d absorbs “red edge,” near infrared, long wave length light that is invisible to the naked eye. In so doing, the cyanobacterium Acaryochloris marina, competes with virtually no other plant or bacterium in the world for sunlight.

Awareness of Alzheimer’s onset lags with less schooling

A review of epidemiological data has found evidence that people who spend fewer years in school may experience a slight but statistically significant delay in the realization that they’re having cognitive problems that could be Alzheimer’s disease. School of Medicine scientists at the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) reviewed data on 1,449 Alzheimer’s patients from […]

Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum to launch new Kemper Presents music series Feb. 22

Tonya GilmoreFrom Scott Joplin and Chuck Berry to Tina Turner, Nelly and Wilco, St. Louis has long boasted a rich and widely influential musical scene. This spring the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will launch a new concert series designed to highlight the talents and diversity of contemporary St. Louis musicians. The free Friday evening concerts — titled Kemper Presents — will feature close to a dozen local artists working in a variety of genres, from ambient jazz and electronica to experimental rock and American roots music.
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