Newsroom Stories

U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., visited the Medical Campus this week to meet with physicians who treat patients with Alzheimer’s disease, and patients and caregivers who live with the debilitating disease every day. Blunt, pictured with physician-scientist Randall J. Bateman, chairs a subcommittee that oversees funding for medical research.

​​For 50 years, the Women’s Society of Washington University has made a difference in the Washington University in St. Louis community through its dedication to supporting students and strengthening the university’s regional ties.​

Washington University in St. Louis graduate student Andrea Karl found herself thrust into the national spotlight this month at the St. Louis GO! Marathon when an imposter at the finish line denied Karl her first-place accolades. She got to recreate the finish at Busch Stadium. Karl is working towards a PhD in molecular genetics and genomics in the Division of Biology & Biomedical Sciences (DBBS) at the School of Medicine. DBBS is in the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences.

Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis recognized five alumni during its 17th annual Arts & Sciences Distinguished Alumni Awards ceremony, held March 19 at The Ritz-Carlton, St. Louis. Barbara A. Schaal, PhD, dean of the faculty of Arts & Sciences and the Mary-Dell Chilton Distinguished Professor, hosted the awards dinner.

“Rotation 1: Contemporary Art from the Peter Norton Gift” opens Friday, May 1 at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum. The exhibition will offer St. Louis museum-goers their first chance to view highlights from a major recent gift by the renowned arts philanthropist and software entrepreneur.

Scientists have long suspected that respiratory viruses play a critical role in the development of chronic lung diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Studying mouse and cell models of this process, researchers now have shown how immune cells dispatched to the lung to destroy a respiratory virus can fail to disperse after their job is done, setting off a chain of inflammatory events that leads to long-term lung problems.

Junior Kevin Hays has set a new record for standard Rubik’s Cubes solved while underwater: eight. Hays beat the previous record of five while sitting in a dunk tank April 19 on the Washington University in St. Louis campus at the annual Thurtene Carnival. The attempt took two minutes and five seconds.

While in Ethiopia as a Fulbright scholar, L. Lewis Wall, MD, DPhil, met a woman who is trying to change the experience of adolescent girls in rural Ethiopia by providing them with reusable sanitary pads and education about menstruation. Wall and his wife, Helen, decided they had to do something to support the mission.

Scientists, including researchers from Washington University School of Medicine, have found antibiotic resistance genes in the bacterial flora of a South American tribe that never before had been exposed to antibiotic drugs. The findings suggest that bacteria in the human body have had the ability to resist antibiotics since long before such drugs were ever used to treat disease.

Erin McGlothlin, PhD (right), associate professor of German and of Jewish studies in Arts & Sciences, was among eight faculty to receive an Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award. She is pictured with one of her graduate students who nominated her for the award, Ervin Malakaj, a PhD candidate in German.