Newsroom Stories

New research from the School of Medicine suggests that mothers who eat high-fat, high-sugar diets can predispose multiple generations to metabolic problems, even if their offspring consume healthy diets.

As young people reach adulthood, preferences for sweet foods typically decline. But for people with obesity, research from the School of Medicine suggests that the drop-off may not be as steep and that the brain’s reward system operates differently in obese people than in thinner people. The findings are published in the journal Diabetes.

New Alzheimer’s disease research details a technique that speedily measures levels in the brain of a damaging protein fragment, and insight into why mutations in a specific gene increase the risk of developing the disease. Both studies, from researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, are available online in The Journal of Experimental Medicine.

Examining databases of proteins’ 3-D shapes, scientists at School of Medicine have identified more than 850 DNA mutations that appear to be linked to cancer. The information may expand the number of cancer patients who can benefit from existing drugs. The study, published June 13 in Nature Genetics, detailed a list of the mutations and associated drugs that may work against them.

It began as an experiment. Three decades later, the University City Public Art Series is the nation’s longest-running public art collaboration between a university and a local municipality.

Recent research has indicated a general consumer preference for experiences over material goods when it comes to giving and receiving gifts. But new findings from researchers at Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis show that major life events might be the exception to that rule.

Raj Jain has been named the Barbara J. and Jerome R. Cox, Jr. Professor in Computer Science at Washington University in St. Louis. He was installed May 24.

Glaciations on Mars are different from those on Earth. During a Martian glacial period, water vapor that would otherwise travel to the north polar cap instead snows out at lower latitudes, where ice then accumulates. Radargrams of the north polar region of Mars record the most recent mid-latitude Martian glacial period and the regrowth of the polar ice since then.

Friends and family of Barry Weller will gather from 7 – 9 p.m. June 27 at the Webster Groves High School Auditorium for a celebration of his life. The Webster Groves High School Auditorium is located at 100 Selma Avenue.

The research team of Liviu Mirica, associate professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences, has developed novel methods for generating the buildings blocks of important compounds with the common metal nickel. The work expands scientists’ toolbox for nickel-based chemistry, and contributes to the movement of “green chemistry” toward a 21st century of sustainable synthesis.