Newsroom Stories

MuslinAnthony Muslin has been named the Oliver M. Langenberg Distinguished Professor of the Science and Practice of Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The professorship was established by the Edward Mallinckrodt Jr. Foundation in recognition of Oliver M. Langenberg’s outstanding contributions to the foundation’s success. Langenberg serves as the foundation’s chairman of the board.

Cristina Greavu and Peter ElsbeckStudy for “A Neighborhood … Residence and Life” competitionCristina Greavu and Peter Elsbeck, both graduate students in architecture in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, have earned an honorable mention as part of an international urban design competition sponsored by the High Commission for the Development of Arriyadh.

Listed below are this month’s featured news stories. • Stop smoking by phone (week of Jan. 3) • Bacteria’s role in obesity (week of Jan. 10) • Biochemical marker for sleep loss (week of Jan. 17) • Unsafe drivers with dementia (week of Jan. 24) • Genetic link to nicotine dependence (week of Jan. 31)

Class-action lawsuits can significantly slow or halt science’s ability to establish links between neurological illness and environmental factors produced by industry, a team of scientists and lawyers warns in the journal Neurology. The authors caution that litigation’s effects could seriously impair efforts to identify compounds that contribute to a wide variety of diseases, including Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Comparing images of brain activity in response to the “self-remember,” left, and “self-future” event cues, researchers found a surprisingly complete overlap among regions of the brain used.Using brain imaging, researchers from Washington University in St. Louis have identified several brain regions that are involved in the uniquely human ability to envision future events. The study, to be published in the journal PNAS, provides evidence that memory and future thought are highly interrelated and helps explain why future thought may be impossible without memories. Findings suggest that envisioning the future may be a critical prerequisite for many higher-level planning processes.

Washington University’s Olin School of Business and the Olin Marketing Association will hold the 7th annual Super Advertising Bowl, from 3-9 p.m. Feb. 4 at the Knight Center on Washington University’s campus. The Super Ad Bowl is a fun event where Olin marketing students and faculty critique the television commercials that air during the Super Bowl while raising funds for the Arthritis Foundation’s St. Louis Chapter.

Tests of a protein’s role in the immune system have revealed a surprising connection to a kidney problem that occurs in approximately one percent of all live births. This condition, known as functional obstruction, impairs the ureter’s ability to pump urine from the kidney to the bladder. If untreated, this leaves urine stuck in the kidney, which balloons and becomes at risk of failure.

David Murray demonstrates defibrillation techniques to a group of students in the Clinical Simulation Center.The Institute of Medicine estimates that medical errors are the eighth leading cause of death in the United States, and poor communication can be a major source of those errors. Now the Clinical Simulation Center at the School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital hopes to improve patient safety by using clinical simulators to find the source of miscommunications during medical treatments.

A link between obesity and the microbial communities living in our guts is suggested by new research at the School of Medicine. The findings indicate that our gut microbes are biomarkers, mediators and potential therapeutic targets in the war against the worldwide obesity epidemic.

The surge of baby boomers now entering their 60s means more drivers on the road who may be impaired by dementia or other cognitive impairments linked to aging. Researchers at the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) at the School of Medicine and elsewhere have developed a three-hour workshop that trains health care providers to identify potentially unsafe drivers with dementia and to encourage appropriate retirement from driving.