Newsroom Stories

The Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis will honor four outstanding architecture alumni at its 13th annual Distinguished Alumni Awards Dinner April 6. Recipients will be Soo K. Chan (BArch ’84), Eric Haesloop (BArch ’77), Sandra Ford Mendler (BArch ’81) and Jimmie E. Tucker (MArch ’81). In addition, Corinna Cotsen (MArch and MSCE ’83) will receive the 2006 Dean’s Medal for exceptional service while Brian Vitale (March ’95) will receive the Young Alumni Award.

WHAT: The 16th annual powwow, part of American Indian Awareness Week at Washington University. WHEN: Saturday, April 8 from noon to 10 p.m. Grand entries of dancers will be showcased at 1 and 7 p.m. Arts & crafts booths will open at 10 a.m. WHERE: Washington University’s Athletic Center, near the intersection of Forsyth Boulevard and Olympian Way.

Islets isolated from a rat pancreasDiabetes researchers hoping to enlist the help of a protein targeted by cancer therapies have gained an important new insight into how the protein, known as mTOR, works in the pancreas. Ironically, diabetes researchers want to promote the capability of mTOR that oncologists want to shut down: its ability to cause cells to reproduce by dividing into copies of themselves.

Illustration of a lung volume reduction surgeryIn many cases of advanced emphysema, reducing the size of the lungs surgically has been shown to improve both survival and quality of life. But some emphysema patients can’t tolerate this bilateral operation. Now a study conducted by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of Pennsylvania Health System has shown that unilateral, or one-sided, lung volume reduction surgery has significant benefits, offering help to those who are not candidates for the bilateral surgery. More…

Restricting calories may mean living longer.Can eating a low-calorie yet nutritionally balanced diet extend human life as it does in rodents? Preliminary research suggests it might, so researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are launching a long-term study to find out. More…

Islets isolated from a rat pancreasDiabetes researchers hoping to enlist the help of a protein targeted by cancer therapies have gained an important new insight into how the protein, known as mTOR, works in the pancreas. Ironically, diabetes researchers are hoping to promote the capability of mTOR that oncologists want to shut down: its ability to cause cells to reproduce by dividing into copies of themselves. That capacity can be deadly in tumors, but diabetes researchers want to use mTOR’s ability to make cells divide to maintain enough insulin-making beta cells in the pancreas to prevent diabetes. More…

Unraveling the mysteries of the human brain, and the mind it gives rise to, is within the reach of modern science, suggests a forthcoming issue of the journal Neuroscience. The special issue explores how sophisticated working memory processes — from the firing of a single neuron to the activation of multiple brain regions — help shape our understanding of the world, says issue co-editor Grega Repovs, a visiting post-doctoral fellow at Washington University in St. Louis. More…

Restricting calories may mean living longer.Can eating a low-calorie yet nutritionally balanced diet extend human life as it does in rodents? Preliminary research suggests it might, so researchers at the School of Medicine are launching a long-term study to find out.

FieldsDistinguished professor and writer Wayne Fields will present the Interdisciplinary Project in the Humanities/Phi Beta Kappa/Sigma Xi Lecture for the Assembly Series at 11 a.m. April 12 in Graham Chapel. The talk, on “Love and Seduction: Our Anxiety About Rhetoric,” is free and open to the public.

Photograph of *Spinosaurus* dinosaur bones found in a German museum.A geologist at Washington University has confirmed the discovery of a geologist from another era by discovering presumably lost photographs in a German museum. The finding is important to the history of paleontology. More…