Newsroom Stories

An international consortium of researchers, including scientists at the Genome Sequencing Center, has decoded the genome of the rhesus macaque monkey and compared it with the genomes of humans and their closest living relatives – the chimps – revealing that the three primate species share about 93 percent of the same DNA. Washington University scientists also recently completed the raw sequences for the orangutan and marmoset genomes.

Photo by Kevin LowderIngyu Moon, first-year student at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work, blasts through boards as part of a tae kwon do demonstration at the 13th annual International Festival March 31 in Room 300 of the Lab Sciences Building.

Scientists have untangled two similar disabilities that often afflict stroke patients, in the process revealing that one may be treatable with drugs for Parkinson’s disease. Researchers at the School of Medicine showed that stroke damage in a brain region known as the putamen is strongly linked to motor neglect, a condition that makes patients slow to move toward the left side.

Listed below are this month’s featured news stories. • ADHD risk factors (week of Apr. 4) • Fixing flat feet (week of Apr. 11) • Nanoparticle tracking system (week of Apr. 18) • DHA and Alzheimer’s (week of Apr. 25)

Hugh Foley, Ph.D., associate professor of communications and fine arts at Rogers State University, will present “Savage Country: American Indian Mascots in Sports,” from 2-4 p.m. on April 12. This lecture is part of American Indian Awareness Week at Washington University in St. Louis. Foley is available for interviews before the lecture.

Smoking while pregnant combined with genetic factors greatly increases the risk of severe ADHD.Past research has suggested that both genes and prenatal insults — such as exposure to alcohol and nicotine — can increase the risk of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). But the identified increases in risk have been very modest. Now, a team of Washington University scientists has found that when those factors are studied together, risk of a severe type of ADHD greatly increases.

Nearly 40 percent of babies with a condition known as Simpson Golabi Behmel syndrome will die soon after birth, likely because of heart problems related to the disorder, which causes them to grow too quickly. Researchers funded by the Children’s Discovery Institute are pursuing a unique new approach to treating this disorder: they’re hoping to use long chains of sugar molecules to coax troublemaking cells back to good behavior.

English physician David Barker noticed an interesting phenomenon during the Dutch famine in the mid-1940s. He found that babies from that era — although small for their gestational age — had a much higher incidence of diabetes, heart disease and obesity when they grew up. Barker hypothesized that the health of a pregnant woman could affect whether her child develops chronic diseases. That hypothesis has been confirmed in a number of studies since, and now, WUSM researchers are investigating in mice the link between diabetic mothers and their offspring.

Clubfoot, one of the most common birth defects, affects 1 in 1,000 children.Children can be sensitive to any physical difference they have from other children. But the patients that Christina Gurnett studies are not just worried about having big ears, eyeglasses or braces. Her patients have more emotionally devastating musculoskeletal disorders, including hands with more or less than five fingers, clubfoot and scoliosis. Since the cause of these disorders and others like them is unknown, Gurnett is examining the possible genetic causes of these common disorders, which run in families.

One in eight babies is born prematurely.Nearly one in every eight U.S. babies is born too early — three weeks or more before the estimated due date. Such premature births are the leading cause of newborn deaths and put babies at risk for chronic lung disease and other serious health problems. While some causes of prematurity are known, more than half of women who deliver early have no known risks. In an innovative approach, WUSM researchers Louis Muglia and Justin Fay are searching human DNA for clues to help explain why some women deliver early.