Newsroom Stories

Michael Wysession, professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has been appointed executive director of the university’s Teaching Center, effective July 1.

Mark Rank, the Herbert S. Hadley Professor of Social Welfare at the Brown School, has developed a calculator that can determine for the first time an American’s expected risk of poverty based on their race, education level, gender, marital status and age. Here’s a video that explains how.

An interdisciplinary team of researchers from the School of Medicine and the School of Engineering & Applied Science is redefining the notion of a wisdom tooth. The team is developing technology that could someday be used to detect early signs of certain diseases in high-risk patients.

A compound derived from immune cells treats psoriasis in mice and holds promise for other autoimmune diseases, according to a new study from the School of Medicine.

A new School of Medicine study shows that a kind of brain scan called functional connectivity MRI (fcMRI) – which shows how brain regions interact – can reliably detect fundamental differences in how individual brains are wired.

Warmer summer and fall seasons and fewer winter freeze-thaw events have led to changes in the relative numbers of different types of bugs in the Arctic, says Amanda Koltz, a postdoctoral fellow in Arts & Sciences. The study relies on the longest-standing, most comprehensive data set on arctic arthropods in the world today: a catalogue of almost 600,000 flies, wasps, spiders and other creepy-crawlies collected at the Zackenberg field station on the northeast coast of Greenland from 1996-2014.

One day, a law professor and a visiting scholar took a walk in St. Louis’ historic Forest Park. A friendship, partnership and a unique class called “Religion, Politics, and the University” followed, which takes a deep dive into how a diverse democracy can develop and be successful in a pluralistic society.

Sarah C.R. Elgin and Samuel I. Achilefu will receive Washington University in St. Louis’ 2018 faculty achievement awards, Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton announced. Also, William A. Frazier III, professor emeritus, will be honored for innovation and entrepreneurship.

Studying mice, School of Medicine researchers found that a drug can deliver itch relief by targeting particular opioid receptors on neurons in the spinal cord. The drug is being tested for its anti-itch effects in the U.S., but until now scientists haven’t understood how it works.

A new automated text messaging service may curb opioid abuse and reduce the likelihood of relapse while also decreasing treatment costs, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine and Epharmix, a St. Louis-based digital health company.