Newsroom Stories

Sophisticated brain imaging reveals that several brain regions can become overactivated when people with Tourette Syndrome perform tasks related to memory.Neuroscience researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are studying the brains of patients with Tourette Syndrome (TS) to see whether they can use sophisticated imaging techniques to identify differences in the dopamine system of people with the tics that characterize TS. A team of researchers, led by Kevin J. Black, M.D., assistant professor of psychiatry, neurology and radiology at Washington University School of Medicine, is using PET imaging to see what the brain does in response to levodopa, a natural amino acid that has been used for many years to treat movement disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease. With PET imaging, the researchers can measure the boost in the brain’s dopamine levels in response to the drug both in people with Tourette Syndrome and in those who do not have tics. By identifying differences, they hope to isolate the causes of tics and to help people with TS control or eliminate them.

Illustration from a Hans Christian Andersen story.What is “children’s literature?” As we pause between the perfect, all-ages storms of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and the upcoming Lord of the Rings: Return of the King film adaptation, the answer seems less clear than ever. In the current issue of Belle Lettres, a bi-monthly publication of Washington University’s International Writers Center in Arts & Sciences, a culture critic and a director of teacher education explain that the genre, always hard to define, remains poorly understood and frequently underestimated.

A new state-of-the-art building nestled in the heart of the Medical Campus will be called The Farrell Learning and Teaching Center.

Henry Roediger, Ph.D., Janice M. Huss, Ph.D., Kevin D. Moeller, Ph.D., Glenn D. Stone, Ph.D., Karen L. Wooley, Ph.D., Brian N. Finck, Ph.D., Amy V. Walker, Ph.D., Tzyh-Jong Tarn, D.Sc., Muthayyah Srinivasan, Bruce Fegley, Ph.D., Jonathan B. Losos, Ph.D., Tamara Hershey, Ph.D., Michael Sherraden, Ph.D., Gabriel Alejandro de Erausquin, M.D., Ph.D., Glenn C. Conroy, Ph.D., Carlos F. Suarez, M.D., Rebecca Treiman, Ph.D., Jeffrey M. Zacks, Ph.D., Lawrence M. Lewis, M.D., and J. William Harbour, M.D.,

Construction update

In his new position, he will guide an initiative that will focus on ways to expand the intellectual interests and educational skills of undergraduates.

Seismologists record unexpected volcanic eruption on Pacific isle

A levitated droplet during heating by a laser to just above the melting temperature.Using the Electrostatic Levitator at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, a physicist at Washington University in St. Louis led a research team that validated a 50-year-old hypothesis explaining how liquid metals resist turning into solids. The research, led by Ken Kelton, Ph.D., a professor of physics in Arts & Sciences at Washington University, is featured in the July 2003 issue of Physics Today, including an image on the magazine’s cover of a solid drop of metal suspended inside the levitator. The NASA-funded research challenges theories about how crystals form by a process called nucleation, important in everything from materials to biological systems.”Nucleation is everywhere,” says Kelton. “It’s the major way physical systems change from one phase to another. The better we understand it, the better we can tailor the properties of materials to meet specific needs.”

Using the Electrostatic Levitator at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, a physicist at Washington University in St. Louis led a research team that validated a 50-year-old hypothesis explaining how liquid metals resist turning into solids. The research, led by Ken Kelton, Ph.D., a professor of physics in Arts & Sciences at Washington University, is featured in the July 2003 issue of Physics Today and includes an image on the magazine’s cover of a solid drop of metal suspended inside the levitator. The NASA-funded research challenges theories about how crystals form by a process called nucleation, important in everything from materials to biological systems.

Smoking is more common among kids with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) than those without the disorder, but the risk for smoking rises dramatically in those with the inattentive subtype of ADHD.Advances in medical imaging techniques are among the breakthroughs being presented by Washington University researchers at the Society of Nuclear Medicine’s 50th Annual Meeting June 21-25 at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, La. More than 3,600 specialists in the field of nuclear medicine are expected to attend the meeting, which focuses on current issues in nuclear medicine, including bioethics, terrorism using radioactive materials, and controversial topics in the future of PET. WUSTL-related news from the meeting includes research on a new MicroPet technique for improved imaging of small animals and a study suggesting that FDHT-PET scanning of androgen receptors (AR) is successful in imaging patients with prostate cancer. Washington University cancer imaging specialist Barry A. Siegel will receive the Society of Nuclear Medicine’s (SNM) 2003 Georg Charles de Hevesy Nuclear Pioneer Award for his distinguished contributions to nuclear medicine.