Newsroom Stories

Rohit Pappu, PhD, the Edwin H. Murty Professor of Engineering at Washington University’s School of Engineering & Applied Science, will help spearhead the newly formed Human Dark Proteome Initiative, launched Nov. 9 by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and The Scripps Research Institute.

​At team at Washington University’s School of Engineering & Applied Science found tomato plants that received zinc oxide and titanium dioxide nanoparticles better absorbed light and minerals, and the fruit had higher antioxidant content.

Readiness for and recovery from public health threats will be highlighted at the eighth annual conference of the Institute for Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis. Infectious disease outbreaks, natural disasters and civil unrest are among the topics that will be addressed.

​Hundreds of Washington University in St. Louis students will dance, play games, raise money, cheer student performers and meet “Miracle Kids” and their families during Dance Marathon, a 12-hour dance party on the Danforth Campus that benefits the Children’s Miracle Network.​

Gary A. Silverman, MD, PhD, has been named the Harriet B. Spoehrer Professor and head of the Department of Pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. With the new appointment, effective in April, Silverman will become pediatrician-in-chief at St. Louis Children’s Hospital and executive director of the Children’s Discovery Institute, a partnership of the school and hospital.

Washington University in St. Louis has received a two-year, $1.6 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Wolfgang Munar, MD, associate director for Global Social Policy at the Brown School’s Social System Design Lab and associate director of the Institute for Public Health’s Global Health Center, is the project’s primary investigator. The grant money will be used to test a novel methodology that will measure the social structures that enhance or limit adoption of modern contraceptives in rural Ethiopia.

Washington University in St. Louis has announced the launch of the Center for Health Economics and Policy, to be housed in the Institute for Public Health. The goal of the new center is to improve population health in America by encouraging health policy and economics research and dissemination.

Scientists have identified two chemical scents in the urine of female mice that arouse sexual behavior in males, a discovery that shines a spotlight on how mouse pheromones control behavior.

What is gentrification, and can urban renewal be accomplished responsibly and ethically? Washington University in St. Louis Executive Vice Chancellor ​Henry S. Webber and Molly Metzger, PhD, of the Brown School, will explore these issues at the St. Louis Up Close event “Gentrification – Fact or Fiction; Truth or Myth.” Sponsored by the Gephardt Institute, the event takes place at 4 p.m. Nov. 12 in the Danforth University Center.

The trial of former Oklahoma City police officer Daniel Hotlzclaw, accused of 36 charges resulting from assaults against several black women while on duty, has begun. Though African Americans make up approximately 16 percent of the population of Oklahoma County, there are no black jurors among the eight men and four women serving. The jury selection process allowed for the controversial makeup, said Peter Joy, JD, a criminal justice expert at Washington University in St. Louis.