Newsroom Stories

In 2016, Washington University in St. Louis broke new ground, made new discoveries and welcomed another debate — the fifth in university history. Here, we run down 10 stories that captured our attention in 2016.

Check out the university’s most-watched YouTube video stories of 2016.

How graduate and medical students from Washington University’s Young Scientist Program are helping share science with area students. The program has been in place more than 25 years.

Jason Q. Purnell, assistant professor in the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis and project director of For the Sake of All, the groundbreaking initiative on the health and well-being of African-Americans in St. Louis, was named 2016 Person of the Year by The St. Louis American.

Many with psychiatric problems want to quit smoking, but psychiatrists and caseworkers typically don’t prescribe medications to help them or refer them to services aimed at smoking cessation, researchers at the School of Medicine and BJC Behavioral Health in St. Louis have found.

Welders exposed to airborne manganese at estimated levels below federal occupational safety standards exhibit neurological problems similar to Parkinson’s disease, according to School of Medicine research. The more they are exposed to manganese-containing welding fumes, the faster the workers’ signs and symptoms worsen. The findings, published Dec. 28, suggest current safety standards may not adequately protect welders.

New research from Washington University in St. Louis’s Olin Business School shows price hikes in ride-sharing services such as Uber and Lyft during peak use times, such as New Year’s Eve, can actually benefit both drivers and consumers.

A new study by the School of Medicine, published Dec. 22 in Nature Communications, helps explain why development of a better vaccine for tuberculosis has been stymied.

Do big-brained creatures steal energy for them from other organs or eat more to supply this expensive tissue? New work in large-brained fish suggests skimping elsewhere is not enough to meet the energy demands of an extreme brain.

Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis is launching the Olin Fleischer Scholars Program, a free one-week residential summer program for high school students who have limited financial resources or who will be the first in their families to attend college.