Newsroom Stories

New HIV therapies have contributed to a decrease in AIDS deaths, but physicians suspected the more potent medications led to symptoms characteristic of metabolic syndrome. However, now researchers at the School of Medicine have found that the rate of metabolic syndrome in HIV-infected patients is virtually identical to that in uninfected people.

The Pulitzer Prize for history was awarded Monday to Hank Klibanoff, a Washington University alumnus. Klibanoff, who graduated from Washington University in 1971 with a bachelor’s degree in English in Arts & Sciences, and Gene Roberts won the Pulitzer Prize for “The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation.”

WHO: M.B.A. students at the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis. WHAT: The second annual A.G. Edwards M&A Competition. Students with the best M&A proposal will win $2,000 for first prize and $1,000 for second place. WHERE: The Knight Center for Executive Education (room 200) located on the Danforth Campus of Washington University. WHEN: Thursday, April 19 at 6:15 p.m.

Shirley Dyke (left) and Pengcheng Wang adjust wireless sensors onto a model laboratory building in Dyke’s laboratory. An earthquake engineer at Washington University in St. Louis has successfully performed the first test of wireless sensors in the simulated structural control of a model laboratory building. Shirley J. Dyke, Ph.D., the Edward C. Dicke Professor of Civil Engineering and director of the Washington University Structural Control and Earthquake Engineering Laboratory, combined the wireless sensors with special controls called magnetorheological dampers to limit damage from a simulated earthquake load. More…

Discussions of memory lapses often focus on a failure to recall past events, but equally important to our daily lives is a form of memory that helps us remember to do something in the future — drop a child at daycare, go to the dentist or pick up bread on the way home. “Memory is fallible, even for tasks that are very important,” suggests WUSTL psychologist Mark A. McDaniel, Ph.D., co-author of a new book exploring how the brain processes memories critical to planning and other forward-looking activities. “As soon as intention leaves awareness, there’s no guarantee that it’s going to be retrieved again.” More…

Tabatha Heet, a junior earth and planetary sciences major and Pathfinder student, shows Ray Arvidson, earth and planetary sciences department chair, a potential landing site for the Phoenix mission to Mars.Earth and planetary scientists at Washington University in St. Louis are paving the way for a smooth landing on Mars for the Phoenix Mission scheduled to launch in August this year by making sure the set-down literally is not a rocky one. A team led by Raymond E. Arvidson, Ph.D., James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor in Arts & Sciences, has been analyzing images taken from a NASA instrument to make sure that the Phoenix spacecraft lands in a spot on the Red planet’s northern plains that is relatively rock-free. Video included.

National Public Radio’s Mandalit del Barco, right, records a conversation with senior Alejandra Ponce de Leon after her final performance with Mariachi Cuicacalli during Footsteps Across the Americas April 12 in Whitaker Hall. Sponsored by WUSTL’s Annika Rodriguez Scholars Program, the event was the third annual symposium on Latino contributions and featured 25 student exhibitions, in addition to del Barco’s keynote address.

Wayne Yokoyama, M.D., the Sam J. Levin and Audrey Loew Levin Chair for Research of Arthritis, professor of Medicine and chief of the Division of Rheumatology, has received a one-year, $30,000 grant from the Barnes-Jewish Hospital Foundation for a Rheumatology Research Fund. … Ramaswamy Govindan, M.D., associate professor of medicine, has received a one-year, $25,496 subcontract from the University of Wisconsin-Madison for “Cancer Communications Systems-Expanded Use/Understanding.” … Diane Damiano, Ph.D., research associate professor of neurology, has received a one-year, $25,000 grant from the American Academy for Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine for research titled “Evaluating Outcomes Associated with Multidisciplinary Care for Children with Cerebral Palsy Using Clinical Practice Improvement (CPI) Methodology.”

Senior Jonathan Garst Orozco, biology major in Arts & Sciences, gets his hair cut by Tara McCarthy of Paramount Salon during the Locks of Love event April 9 in Mallinckrodt Student Center. For a video of the day’s events, visit http://news-info.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/9224.html.

Joe Angeles/WUSTL Photo ServicesBall gown by Lauren EdelsteinThe Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis will present The 78th Annual Fashion Design Show at Saint Louis Galleria Sunday, May 6. The fully choreographed, Paris-style extravaganza will feature more than 50 professional and volunteer models wearing more than 150 outfits created by 19 seniors and 12 juniors from the school’s fashion design program.