Newsroom Stories

Jonathan Gitlin will serve as director of the new Division of Genetics and Genomic Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics.The separate worlds of patient care and genomic science will be brought together in the new Division of Genetics and Genomic Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics at the School of Medicine. Plans for the division map out a model of individualized medical care in which physicians look to a patients’ genetic makeup to determine the most effective treatment.

Over the weekend, Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton engaged — at their request — in direct conversation with four students representing those conducting the sit-in in South Brookings Hall and Brookings Quadrangle. Conditional on their agreement to immediately end their sit-in and hunger strike, the University and the students reached an understanding on several issues, including resources, future meetings, and the resolution of sanctions for violations of the University’s Judicial Code.

Newborn mice and dogs with hemophilia A were restored to normal health through gene therapy developed by researchers at the School of Medicine. The technique introduced into the animals’ cells a gene that makes clotting factor VIII, a protein missing because of a genetic defect.

Washington University reports no change in status regarding the student sit in since Thursday, when the University put forward its plan for supporting lower-paid contract workers. We continue to meet with the students, but no further agreements have been reached. We are relieved to learn they have ended their hunger strike.

Listed below are this month’s featured news stories. • Raw foods lead to low bone mass (week of April 6) • Genomic analysis for critically ill (week of April 13) • Oxygen causes cataracts (week of April 20) • Botox for foot ulcers (week of April 27)

Washington University continues in its effort to initiate a plan for addressing the ongoing needs of lower-paid contract service employees and reiterates our growing concern for the health and well being of the students engaging in a high-risk, life-threatening hunger strike at South Brookings Hall. The University has repeatedly informed the students that their hunger strike creates a significant risk to their health and safety and that the University cannot stand idly by while students take a self-destructive action on our premises.

The Department of Art History and Archaeology in Arts & Sciences will present Exploring the History of Art, a symposium honoring Mark S. Weil, Ph.D., at 2:30 p.m. Friday, April 22, in the Ann W. Olin Women’s Building. Weil, the E. Desmond Lee Professor for Collaboration in the Arts as well as director of the Sam Fox Arts Center and Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, is retiring this June. He has been associated with Washington University for 47 years.

Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton met with the Student Worker Alliance sit-in participants at 3 p.m. today. During the meeting, held in South Brookings Hall, the chancellor presented the following letter.

Courtesy photo*Sacred Music, Sacred Dance*Monks from Tibet’s legendary Drepung Loseling monastery will present The Mystical Arts of Tibet: Sacred Music, Sacred Dance at Washington University in St. Louis’ Edison Theatre April 29 and 30. The concert — presented by the Edison Theatre OVATIONS! Series — will offer a rare opportunity to experience temple music and dance from one of the world’s most ancient sacred traditions, as performed by monks for whom these traditions remain a way of life.

Pianist Seth Carlin, professor of music in Arts & Sciences, will dedicate the music department’s new grand piano in Graham Chapel with a concert of works by Robert Schumann (1810-1856) and Clara Schumann (1819-1896).