Newsroom Stories

Many kidney disorders are difficult to diagnose. To address this problem, scientists and clinicians have developed a diagnostic test that identifies genetic changes linked to inherited kidney disorders. This testing is now available nationwide through Genomic Pathology Services (GPS) at the School of Medicine.

Margaret Garb, PhD, associate professor of history in Arts & Sciences, will be featured on the genealogy program “Who Do You Think You Are” Sunday, March 29. The episode centers on actor Sean Hayes (“Will & Grace”) and Irish immigrants in Chicago.

The industrial metal manganese, once scarce, is now ubiquitous in our environment. New work suggests that it addles honey bees, which often act as sentinel species for environmental contaminants, even at levels considered safe for humans.

Antibiotic resistance is poised to spread rapidly around the globe among bacteria frequently implicated in respiratory and urinary infections in hospital settings, according to new research at the School of Medicine.

Match Day, when medical students across the country find out where they will head for their residency programs, was March 20. At the School of Medicine, more than 120 students gathered for the delivery of envelopes that contained news of where the soon-to-be graduates had matched. Shown is medical student Justin Krogue and his family.

An entire generation grew up watching the hit PBS show “Reading Rainbow” from 1983-2006, but a new generation of children have vastly different technological skills and habits. Not a problem for LeVar Burton, who has combined the power of storytelling with today’s advancements in technology to boost the “Reading Rainbow” franchise. That will be the subject of his lecture for the Washington University in St. Louis Assembly Series at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 2, in Graham Chapel on the Danforth Campus.

“For the Sake of All,” the multidisciplinary project begun in 2013 that examined and now aims to improve the health and well-being of African Americans in St. Louis, has received a $100,000 gift from Wells Fargo Advisors. The gift will further the project’s reach into the community by facilitating conversations with, and giving voice to, young people in the region.

Siteman Cancer Center’s parent institutions have named two new leaders in radiation oncology. Dan Kinzel is executive director of radiation oncology at Washington University School of Medicine. Sharon Endicott is director of radiation oncology for Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

Little is known about how heterosexual men navigated dramatic changes in the legal regulation of families in the 1980s. A new paper by Deborah Dinner, JD, associate professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis, provides the first legal history of the father’s rights movement, analyzing how middle-class white men responded to rising divorce rates by pursuing reform in both family law and welfare policy.

The outcome of a duel between mathematical models supports the reigning theory of the genetics of altruism. Called inclusive fitness, it says altruism is competitive if it benefits relatives carrying the same gene as the selfless individual. Attacked by a Nature article published in 2010, it is defended by Washington University evolutionary biologist David Queller.