Newsroom Stories

A combination of two topical drugs that have been in use for years triggers a robust immune response against precancerous skin lesions, according to a new study. The research, from the School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School, shows that the therapy activates the immune system’s T cells, which then attack the abnormal skin cells. The study was published Nov. 21 in The Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Three School of Medicine faculty members are among 391 new fellows selected by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society. Azad Bonni, Phyllis I. Hanson and Gary D. Stormo will receive the highest honor awarded by AAAS.

New research at the School of Medicine shows that excess weight increases the risk that a benign blood disorder — called monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance — will progress into multiple myeloma, a cancer of the blood.

Lori Setton, a renowned researcher into the role of the degeneration and repair of the body’s soft tissues, has been named the Lucy and Stanley Lopata Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis.

Washington University in St. Louis is launching a bold $25 million initiative over the next five years to develop innovative technologies aimed at improving science and medicine worldwide. The Imaging Sciences Initiative – a partnership between the School of Engineering & Applied Science and the School of Medicine – will support the development of new imaging technologies to diagnose and treat disease as well as study intricate biological structures, metabolism and physiology, and critical molecular and cellular processes.

With “Here Be Dragons,” his new exhibition at the Jonathan Ferrara Gallery in New Orleans, Sam Fox School dean Carmon Colangelo examines the limits of knowledge and the precarious social and political states that define our contemporary moment.

A national clinical trial involving Washington University physicians at St. Louis Children’s Hospital will compare three commonly used anti-seizure medications used to treat seizures that last over five minutes and don’t respond to initial treatment. Such seizures can strike anyone but are most common in people already diagnosed with epilepsy.

A mechanical engineer at Washington University in St. Louis discovered that a cell-transitioning process implicated in tumor metastasis is influenced by the mechanics of the cells’ environment.

Shimon Attie, who has earned an international reputation for exploring themes of place, memory and communal trauma, will serve as the 2016-17 Henry L. and Natalie E. Freund Teaching Fellow. The fellowship, which is jointly organized by the Saint Louis Art Museum and Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis, consists of two monthlong residencies, during which recipients lead studios in the Sam Fox School while preparing an exhibition for the museum’s Currents series.

On Nov. 4-6, Washington University hosted Field of Dreams, the annual conference of the Math Alliance, an organization dedicated to increasing the number of traditionally underrepresented groups in doctoral programs in the mathematical sciences.