Newsroom Stories

​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.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is considering adoption of anti-discrimination regulations that would apply to all health care providers and build upon the Affordable Care Act mandate prohibiting discrimination “on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability.” These new rules would help reduce disparities in the health care system, said Elizabeth Sepper, JD, associate professor of law.

Alceste is allergic to flattery, fakery and sycophants. But how much honesty is too much? In “The Misanthrope,” the great French playwright Molière examines the line between diplomacy and deception, between truth-telling and cruelty.

The Obama Administration announced Nov. 10 it will seek United States Supreme Court review of a ruling blocking President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration. Timing is crucial, says Stephen H. Legomsky, JD, DPhil, an expert on immigration law at Washington University in St. Louis.