Newsroom Stories

Co-hosted by Elizabeth Haswell, associate professor of biology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, Taproot is a new podcast that takes listeners behind the the curtain to reveal what it was really like to do the work so opaquely described in journal articles.

University College, the professional and continuing education division of Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, is now offering a 50 percent discount to full-time employees of St. Louis, Clayton and University City and their school districts. Charter school employees also are eligible.

After conducting a new research approach using actual commutes, a group of engineers at Washington University in St. Louis discovered a simple shift in driving habits can help to reduce exposure to pollutants while out on the road.

Washington University in St. Louis researchers have developed a test that quickly detects the presence of Zika virus in blood.

What is the nature of the self? How do conceptions differ in Western and non-Western cultures? Can individual and collective traumas ever be “fixed,” or do certain wounds defy the notion of repair? In “Reason’s Oxymorons,” French-Algerian artist Kader Attia surveys how different cultures, societies and disciplines grapple with questions of loss and damage.

A new study from the School of Medicineshows that mutations in the gene TREM2 cause an energy shortage in the brain’s immune cells, leading to their failure to protect neurons from damaging clumps of protein.

Results of a small clinical trial show promise for treating a rare neurodegenerative condition that typically kills those afflicted before they reach age 20. The disease, called Niemann-Pick type C (NPC), causes cholesterol to build up in neurons, leading to a gradual loss of brain function.

There has been discussion and discourse in recent days — in Missouri and across the country — about a travel advisory issued by the NAACP. Chancellor Wrighton offers his perspective as the university prepares to welcome new and returning students to campus for the start of the 2017-18 academic year.

William F. Tate, dean of the Graduate School at Washington University in St. Louis, has received the 2017 Inspiring Leaders in STEM Award from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine. Tate is also vice provost for graduate education and the Edward Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor in Arts & Sciences. 

As Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia continue to become more prevalent, it may not be long before there is a push for legalizing physician-assisted death in dementia cases in the United States. American officials must thoroughly consider the moral and social consequences of such an action, says an expert on medical ethics at Washington University in St. Louis.