Newsroom Stories

Every week you see it: the local supermarket’s specials include a discount on Brand X tuna fish. Common knowledge assumes that a sale on tuna fish will induce more people to buy Brand X, which boosts profits for both the manufacturer and the grocery store. However, a recent study by professors in the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis has found that discounts are not always in the best interest of the retailer or manufacturer. In fact, some promotions may end up hurting future profitability.

Atrial fibrillation, one of the most common and least manageable postoperative complications of heart surgery, may soon have an effective treatment.

Hip fractures are among the most common bone breaks for adults over the age of 65. These injuries can render previously active adults severely disabled. Recovery from a hip fracture can be long and strenuous. That’s why doctors at the School of Medicine are studying the effects of hormone therapy on hip fracture patients.

The compound eye of a fruit fly (left) and a micrograph of the cells that make up the eyeThe laws of physics combine with the mutual attraction of two proteins to create the honeycomb pattern of fruit fly eyes, say molecular biologists at the School of Medicine. This same combination of forces forms the delicate filtering structures of the mammalian kidney.

School of Medicine researchers are testing ginseng, an ancient Asian herbal medicine, to see if it can help prevent diabetes in overweight adults. Read more about the study in this St. Louis Post-Dispatch article.

FriedmanStudent Commencement speaker Jordan Friedman, president of the senior class, addressed his his fellow students during Commencment and spoke about how far they have come in the last four years and how much more they have to accomplish. Following are Friedman’s prepared remarks.

A new medication can reduce emergency room visits and improve the overall quality of life for moderate to severe asthma sufferers, according to a study by researchers from the School of Medicine and St. Louis University. Learn more about the new drug in the following St. Louis Post-Dispatch story.

Each day, 3,400 people in the United States are diagnosed with cancer and another 1,500 die from the disease. And while these numbers are disturbing, they also harbor a fundamental inequity: racial and ethnic minority groups form a larger percentage of these totals than their proportions in the general population.

Like throwing oil on a fire or prescribing a high cholesterol diet for heart patients, gastroenterologists traditionally have believed that it would not be a good idea to stoke up the body’s immune system to treat Crohn’s disease. Most treatments for Crohn’s, an autoimmune disorder, are geared to suppress the immune response, but a new study demonstrates that stimulating innate immunity also is effective at improving symptoms of the intestinal disorder.

An experiment that turned out very differently than expected led scientists at the School of Medicine to the first direct link between inefficient metabolism and atherosclerosis.