Newsroom Stories

Francis Gymnasium has been home to athletic victories, guest lectures and presidential debates in the University’s illustrious past. In 1918, it even served as a barracks for Vocational Unit, Section B, as World War I drew to a close. Francis Gym, completed in 1903, was one of the buildings used in the third modern Olympic […]

Peanut butter could save the world. If Mark J. Manary, M.D., has his way, that ooey, gooey lunchbox staple might be some kids’ best hope for the future. Manary, associate professor of pediatrics, started a program two years ago that has saved hundreds of starving children in one of the poorest countries in southern Africa. […]

GibsonWhen the U.S. Supreme Court issues its much-awaited decision on the constitutionality of the controversial McCain-Feingold campaign reform legislation, its arguments may hinge on testimony regarding the validity of a political advertising database used to push for the legislation. Supporters of the legislation claim the database provides clear and compelling evidence that McCain-Feingold reforms do not infringe upon free speech, but this is far from the truth, according to James L. Gibson, a Washington University political scientist who served as expert witness when the case was heard in a lower court. His analysis found the database to be “riddled with internal errors and inconsistencies.”

Photo by Bob BostonMichael R. DeBaun shares a smile with Randice Reed, who has sickle cell disease.An $18.5 million NIH grant will fund a study of blood transfusion therapy as a possible treatment for preventing silent strokes.

Image by Trent L. Schindler, Nat’l Science Foundation, Arlington, VAComputer-based reconstruction of an arsinoithere, an extinct fossil mammal from Ethiopia that lived 27 million years ago.Tab Rasmussen, Ph.D., a professor of anthropology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University, and two of his graduate students, were part of an international team of researchers that discovered new fossils in the highlands of Ethiopia that are filling gaps in scientists’ understanding of the evolution of African mammals. The results are reported in the Dec. 4, 2003, issue of the journal Nature.

Rebecca Dresser, an expert on biomedical research law and bioethics and the Daniel Noyes Kirby Professor of Law at Washington University in St. Louis, discusses the legal and ethical implications of stem cell research with Mike Sampson of KWMU’s “St. Louis on the Air” Nov. 25. Dresser is also a member of the President’s Council on Bioethics. Listen to the program from the KWMU Web site.

Image courtesy of Cindy LustigParts of the brain involved in a “resting network” show large differences between young adults, older adults, and people with Alzheimer’s disease.Researchers tracking the ebb and flow of cognitive function in the human brain have discovered surprising differences in the ability of younger and older adults to shut down a brain network normally active during periods of passive daydreaming. The differences, which are especially pronounced in people with dementia, may provide a clear and powerful new method for diagnosing individuals in the very early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.

More than $300 million will be spent to rapidly bring the new knowledge of the human genetic blueprint to the patient’s bedside.

More than $300 million will be spent to rapidly bring the new knowledge of the human genetic blueprint to the patient’s bedside. More about BioMed 21

Photo by Bob BostonJohn F. McDonnell, Larry J. Shapiro, Philip Needleman and Chancellor Mark Wrighton visit at the Nov. 17 news conference announcing BioMed 21.The three-year grant is one of five awarded by the National Human Genome Research Institute to U.S. sequencing centers.