Newsroom Stories

HammermanIn a new study with an eye on curing diabetes, senior investigator Marc Hammerman and a group of WUSM scientists successfully transplanted embryonic pig pancreatic cells destined to produce insulin into diabetic macaque monkeys – all without the need for risky immune suppression drugs that prevent rejection. The transplanted cells, known as primordia, are in the earliest stages of developing into pancreatic tissues. Within several weeks of the transplants, the cells became engrafted, or established, within the three rhesus macaque monkeys that received them. The cells also released pig insulin in response to rising blood glucose levels, as would be expected in healthy animals and humans.

Come hear the latest research accomplishments of some of the School of Medicine’s most talented female faculty and fellows. Spotlighting Women in Medicine and Science (SWIMS) will highlight the work of doctors and scientists in diverse fields, including obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, oncology, cardiology and cell biology. Speakers also will discuss some of the unique challenges they have faced in their careers in academic medicine.

Scientists believe they have found an explanation for a puzzling and serious complication of West Nile virus infection. Researchers showed that the virus can enter a nerve cell, replicate and move on to infect other nearby nerve cells. Viruses traveling this infectious pathway can break into the central nervous system, triggering a condition known as acute flaccid paralysis that leaves one or more limbs limp and unresponsive.

Poet and author Susan Wheeler, the visiting Fannie Hurst Professor of Creative Literature in Washington University’s Writing Program in Arts & Sciences, will read from her work Thursday, Oct. 25, and speak on the craft of poetry Tuesday, Oct. 30. Wheeler is the author of four poetry collections – Bag ‘o’ Diamonds (1993), Smokes (1998), Source Codes (2001) and Ledger (2005) – as well as a novel, Record Palace (2005).

Due to a change in production scheduling, the Assembly Series program featuring actor Kal Penn Oct. 25 has been cancelled. There are no immediate plans to reschedule. For further updates visit assemblyseries.wustl.edu or call 935-5285.

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is bringing together a distinguished group of scientists, legal scholars, jurists and philosophers from across the country to help integrate new developments in neuroscience into the U.S. legal system.

The pedestrian bridge over Forest Park Parkway on the Danforth Campus will be closed Oct. 18-22 to allow Metro to install a protective deck coating on the bridge.

J. Dillon Brown, Ph.D., Bill Bubelis, Ph.D., Sudarshan Jayaraman, J. Lamar Pierce, Ph.D., And more…

The Tamm Avenue bridge is scheduled to open Oct. 20.

Two Olin Business School students won the top prize in an international marketing plan competition. Seniors John Ludeke and Rebecca Tucker were recognized for their marketing plan to curb childhood obesity in a ceremony Oct. 15 at the Marketing Agencies Association Worldwide Globes Awards ceremony at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.