Newsroom Stories

On Dec. 12, 707 high school seniors opened their inboxes to learn that they had been accepted early decision to Washington University in St. Louis. But Zussy Chavira Duron of St. Louis got the good news straight from a team of Washington University leaders and the WashU Bear, who traveled to the College Bound St. Louis office to surprise her with an acceptance letter and a full WashU Pledge scholarship.

New School of Medicine research suggests that physicians evaluating young patients with hip pain should consider more than physical health. They also should consider screening for clinical depression and anxiety — impairments that can have a negative impact on outcomes following hip surgery.

Researchers from Washington University in St. Louis will develop and deploy a new telescope designed to measure the linear polarization of X-rays arriving from distant neutron stars, black holes and other exotic celestial objects. The instrument will be flown on a minimum of two scientific balloon launches as early as summer 2021. The NASA-funded effort builds on promising results from a previous balloon-borne mission known as X-Calibur and is dubbed XL-Calibur.

Harsh Moolani initially shrugged off a friend’s advice to quit trying to do it all. Then he considered the source: a remarkable woman with a successful career, good friends — and only a few months to live. Moolani is set to graduate in December with a degree in neuroscience in Arts & Sciences. He will remain in St. Louis and expand Create Circles, the nonprofit he founded to connect older and younger adults.

Social workers have long served traumatized students, sick patients, struggling veterans and troubled families. But can they help the American mayor? Absolutely, said Diamond Munerlyn, who is poised to earn a master’s degree in social work from the Brown School. The recognition ceremony is Saturday, Dec. 14. 

Dana Levy, an internationally renowned artist whose work frequently explores tensions between the man-made and natural worlds, has been appointed the 2019-20 Henry L. and Natalie E. Freund Teaching Fellow at Washington University in St. Louis. The fellowship, jointly sponsored by the Saint Louis Art Museum and the university’s Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, is designed to promote the creation and exhibition of contemporary art as well as the teaching of contemporary art principles.

Parking & Transportation Services has been reviewing usage and functionality of the east end garage and will be modifying parking spaces in coming weeks to better improve traffic flow and accommodate visitors. The team also shares reminders about parking office hours and shuttle service during winter break.

An international study led by the School of Medicine and CHU Sainte-Justine hospital in Montreal has found no benefit in using fresh red blood cells that have been stored for up to seven days in blood transfusions for critically ill children, compared with using older red blood cells stored for nearly four weeks.

School of Medicine researchers have mapped nine functional networks in the deep-brain structures of 10 healthy people, an accomplishment that could lead to improvements in deep-brain stimulation therapy for severe cases of Parkinson’s disease and other neurological conditions.

In a Dec. 10 briefing on Capitol Hill, chemist Sophia Hayes of Washington University in St. Louis and an expert on helium testified that steep price increases and “supply shocks” threaten basic research in academic settings. Shortages will also lead to broader health and industry applications, she said.