Newsroom Stories

Legail P. Chandler, assistant dean and executive director of human resources at the School of Medicine, has been named vice chancellor for human resources at Washington University, according to Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton. Chandler, whose appointment is effective immediately, succeeds Lorraine Goffe-Rush, who was named vice president for human resources at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Pathogens, pesticides and nutritional deficits have previously been identified as stressors linked to colony collapse disorder, but it was a mystery why bee colonies sometimes collapsed so rapidly, leaving bee keepers with an empty hive box. A new study suggests that when a colony is stressed, young bees are forced to become foragers much sooner than they otherwise would and this accelerated development leads to their early death.

Children treated for moderate acute malnutrition experience a high rate of relapse and even death in the year following treatment and recovery. A new study led by School of Medicine researchers has found that target weights and measures of arm circumference used in assessing the health of malnourished children are insufficient and that raising these thresholds could significantly lower the rate of relapse.

Topics both timely and thought-provoking will be covered in back-to-back Assembly Series lectures. At 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 17,  eminent religious scholar and bestselling author Reza Aslan will address “Faith, Extremism, and Democracy: Examining the Parallels of Religious Fundamentalism at Home and Abroad.” At 7 p.m. the next evening, Feb. 18, writer Ta-Nehisi Coates will explore one of the most enduring and controversial issues of race in “The Case for Reparations.”

​Restoring function after spinal cord injury, which damages the connections that carry messages from the brain to the body and back, depends on forming new connections between the surviving nerve cells. With a five-year, nearly $1.7-million grant from the National Institutes of Health, Shelly Sakiyama-Elbert, PhD, professor of biomedical engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, is using novel methods to study how these nerve cells grow and make new connections to reroute signals that could restore function and movement in people with these debilitating injuries.

The discovery was an important first step; the dialogue continues. That’s the takeaway more than 600 participants from within the Washington University in St. Louis community heard in a unique, universitywide forum called “Race & Ethnicity: A Day of Discovery and Dialogue” that took place Feb. 5 and 6.

The School of Medicine’s 11th Annual Art Show is underway in the Farrell Learning and Teaching Center atrium on the Medical Campus. Visitors may view the art through Feb. 11.

Factors associated with the prevalence of diabetes vary by geographic region in the United States, according to new research from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis led by J. Aaron Hipp, PhD. The findings suggest that approaches to combating the disease should be localized.

A Washington University drug discovery program, led by Michael Holtzman, MD, has received three grants totaling more than $5 million to develop new medical therapeutics for respiratory diseases. The target illnesses range from the common cold to life-threatening lung disease.

New research shows that the hormonal intrauterine device (IUD) and the contraceptive implant remain highly effective one year beyond their approved duration of use, according to a study at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.