Newsroom Stories

Turns out your mom was right: scratching an itch only makes it worse. New research from scientists at the Center for the Study of Itch at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis reveals that scratching causes the brain to release serotonin, which intensifies the itch sensation.

Patients with tinnitus hear phantom noise and are sometimes so bothered by the perceived ringing in their ears they have difficulty concentrating. A new therapy does not lessen perception of the noise but appears to help patients cope better with it in their daily lives, according to new research led by Jay Piccirillo, MD.

For the past year and a half, dedicated students, faculty and staff have come together through the university’s Mosaic Project to help move us toward a more inclusive campus community. Now, as this initiative is concluding, the efforts of the eight Mosaic Project working groups are taking root at the university.

​Known to generations of Washington University students and faculty members as “Sam and Betty,” Sam Lachterman and Betty Wynn, a homeless brother-and-sister who spent decades attending programs on campus, bequeathed $54,000 to Washington University. Half of their gift will fund the Nov. 1-2 performances of an Assembly Series event chosen just for them, “Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host” at Edison Theatre. The other half will live on in bequests to the School of Law, the Kemper Museum and Arts & Sciences.

The heart holds its own pool of immune cells capable of helping it heal after injury, according to new research in mice at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Some 300 youngsters from across the St. Louis region were welcomed to the South 40 on the Danforth Campus of Washington University in St. Louis Oct. 25 for Safe Trick of Treat, an annual tradition.

George Macones, MD, head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, has been named the new steering committee chair for the Maternal-Fetal Medicine Units Network (MFMU) at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

​Overwhelmed by speculators trying to cash-in on a prized medicinal fungus known as Himalayan Viagra, two isolated Tibetan communities have managed to do at the local level what world leaders often fail to do on a global scale — implement a successful system for the sustainable harvest of a precious natural resource, suggests new research from Washington University in St. Louis.​

Adam Schefkind, a biology major in Arts & Sciences with minors in public and jazz studies, says his two passions – medicine and music – both demand precision and creativity. Schefkind and his band will perform at Jazz at Holmes at 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 30. He is the first student to headline the venerable jazz series, according to his mentor William Lenihan, professor of the practice in music and director of jazz performance.

To truly understand corporate law in America, the study must go through Delaware, long the favored state of incorporations for U.S. business. Washington University in St. Louis law students annually get a firsthand look at how these important courts operate through the eyes of Delaware Supreme Court and chancery judges who come to St. Louis to deliver lectures and seminars. The students also can work in the Delaware courts through corporate judicial externships and clerkships.