Newsroom Stories

Cities are both a leading cause and victim of global climate change, but they also hold great promise. In the first installment of Class Acts, a series celebrating the Class of 2019, seniors Marissa Lerner and Alexis Vidaurreta share their optimism and respective visions for cities that protect people and resources.

Pregnancy tests can sometimes give a false negative result to women several weeks into their pregnancies, according to research by Ann Gronowski, professor of pathology and immunology at the School of Medicine. Her findings led the FDA to change its standards for evaluating new pregnancy tests, but old tests with the false-negative problem are still on the market.

The 29th annual Pow Wow, a celebration of American Indian cultures, will be held Saturday, April 20, in the Washington University Field House. This year’s theme is “Keep Them Sacred: Honoring Generations of Indigenous Women.” Hosted by the Brown School’s Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies, the event is free and open to the public.

Researchers from Olin Business School explore the complexity of tariffs as a trade tool in a global economy in a new paper. The research also establishes a supply chain model to explain those effects. The model proposes that, in some cases, the effects were foreseeable when accounting for strategic multi-party interactions and competition.

Washington University announced parking permit pricing for the 2019-20 academic year. In the coming weeks, a series of town halls also will be held to provide updates and answer questions from the campus community.

Under the leadership of Chancellor-elect Andrew Martin, Washington University will embark on a strategic planning process this spring, to be heavily informed by input from members of the university community.

The Washington University School of Medicine will provide $100 million in scholarship funding, allowing as many as half of its medical students to attend tuition-free and providing others with partial support. Efforts to enhance the medical education program also will benefit.

Researchers at the McKelvey School of Engineering have received funding to engineer microbes that create an underwater adhesive based on, but stickier than, the natural adhesive made by mussels.

The School of Medicine has led a new study showing that new Medicare reimbursement rules reduce financial penalties for safety-net hospitals. The change shifts some of the financial burden away from hospitals that care for the most vulnerable patients.

Helium is a valuable, non-renewable resource that is critical for many medical and research applications. But helium supply and pricing are unreliable. Sophia Hayes, a professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences, spoke at a recent American Chemical Society webinar about the need for congressional action to address these challenges.