Newsroom Stories

Getting treated for a common type of cancer just became easier: An international team of surgeons including two at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has determined that minimally invasive surgery is as safe and effective as standard open surgery for most patients with cancer confined to the colon.

One worked on the frontiers of space research for more than four decades; another holds three Pulitzer Prizes. One has been the architect behind the revitalization of The Loop in University City, Mo.; another a strong supporter of life-saving medical research. From the first African-American appointed to the federal bench in the 8th Circuit to a groundbreaking diabetes researcher, the six people selected to receive honorary degrees during the University’s 143rd Commencement May 21 all stand out in their respective fields.

Sadat”The story of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison is shocking, and certainly requires a full investigation, and perhaps the criminal prosecution of some of those either directly or indirectly responsible,” says Leila N. Sadat, vice-president and co-director of studies of the American branch of the International Law Association. “However, one thing the story is not, is new. While leading an International Bar Association training program for Iraqi lawyers, judges and prosecutors in Dubai in February, I saw a story on CNN International which reported that 17 soldiers had been relieved of command due to allegations of torture and abuse. Sadat comments on her discussions with Iraqi lawyers as well as the treatment of civilians in the prison.

Requiring hospital workers and patient families to wear protective gowns when they visit patients with a drug-resistant bacteria provides infection control benefits that significantly outweigh gown costs, according to a new study led by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Areas of red and yellow show increased uptake of the altanserin tracer due to binding to the serotonin receptors.Most of us feel sad from time to time, even very sad, but during a bout of clinical depression, a person is unable to escape their low mood for several weeks at a time. A popular and effective treatment for depression involves a class of drugs called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Those drugs increase serotonin levels in the brain and help relieve symptoms of depression, and most scientists believe the brain chemical serotonin plays a key role in depression. Now neuroscience researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that in people who are depressed, a key brain structure has an abnormally low number of cellular serotonin receptors.

HamiltonMajor gifts from The Bellwether Foundation and from Nancy Morrill Smith will create the Robert Brookings Smith Distinguished Professorship in Entrepreneurship for Washington University’s John M. Olin School of Business, it was announced by Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton. Barton H. Hamilton, Ph.D., professor of economics, management and entrepreneurship in the John M. Olin School of Business, will be appointed as the first holder in a ceremony planned for later this year.

Viktor Hamburger, Ph.D., a founding father in the field of developmental neurobiology, lectures to a zoology class in 1960. Hamburger joined the zoology department in 1935 and chaired it from 1941-1966 before gaining emeritus status in 1968. Hamburger (1900-2001) was one of at least 15 intellectuals who migrated from Europe to Washington University between the […]

There’s a telling slip of the tongue when Janet S. Rader, M.D., associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology and of genetics, lists the things she enjoys about her job. “I love taking care of patients,” Rader says, “I love doing research, I love being a mom … ” Rader pauses for a split-second to reorient […]

At recent Board of Trustees meetings, faculty members were appointed with tenure or promoted with tenure.

In an age of globalization, local character turns up in surprising places. Take the suburbs. “It’s very easy to say that the world is being Americanized,” says Jacqueline Tatom, D.Des., assistant professor of architecture, whose comparative study of the peripheries of Lyons, France, and Boston was recently published in Suburban Form: An International Perspective. “Many […]