Newsroom Stories

In a career spanning more than 40 years and nearly 50 albums, John Abercrombie has established himself as one the masters of jazz guitar. At 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 7, the John Abercrombie Quartet will perform as part of the Jazz at Holmes Series at Washington University in St. Louis.

The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis has received a major donation of more than 50 contemporary artworks from Peter Norton, the prominent collector, philanthropist and founder of Peter Norton Computing. The company is perhaps best known for its namesake software utilities program.

Artist Mariam Ghani, the Sam Fox School’s 2014-15 Henry L. and Natalie E. Freund Teaching Fellow, discusses post-Ferguson St. Louis, her new exhibition at the Saint Louis Art Museum and the importance of making space to listen.

​Washington University in St. Louis students, faculty and staff are invited to learn more about the work of the Ferguson Commission and to share their perspectives about St. Louis’ challenges at “The Future of Our Region,” a town hall meeting at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 8, at the Emerson Auditorium in Knight Hall. The event will feature four Ferguson Commission members, including Rose Windmiller, assistant vice chancellor for government and community relations.

Personalized melanoma vaccines can be used to marshal a powerful immune response against unique mutations in patients’ tumors, according to early data in a first-in-people clinical trial at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The research is a boost to cancer immunotherapy, a treatment strategy that unleashes the immune system to seek out and destroy cancer.

Ken Burns, director and producer of some of the most acclaimed historical documentaries ever made, has been selected to give the 2015 Commencement address at Washington University in St. Louis, according to Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton. Wrighton made the announcement to the Class of 2015 during the annual senior class toast Thursday, April 2, in the Danforth University Center. Commencement is Friday, May 15.

Louis W. Sullivan, MD, president emeritus of Morehouse School of Medicine, and former secretary of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), will speak about healthy equity and diversity in the health professions in two talks April 9 at Washington University.

A small team of chemists, having learned the secrets of light absorption from chlorophylls a and b, can now tune molecules to absorb anywhere in the solar spectrum. They are using this facility to synthesize pigments that fill gaps in the sunlight absorbed by native pigments and to push deeper into the infrared than any native pigment.

Older mice genetically prone to bear offspring with heart defects can reduce this risk to that of younger mouse mothers with the same genetic defect through exercise alone, according to new research at the School of Medicine. The study, led by Patrick Y. Jay, MD, PhD, also suggests that the increased risk of congenital heart defects is tied to the age of the mother and not the age of her eggs.

Dancer Samantha Gaitsch is a familiar face to campus audiences. Over the next two weekends, Gaitsch will perform with The Slaughter Project, company-in-residence in the Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences, and will co-direct “Step, Turn, Leap!,” the 2015 Student Dance Showcase.