Newsroom Stories

Researchers led by Audrey Odom, MD, PhD, at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have uncovered a way the malaria parasite becomes resistant to an investigational drug. The discovery also is relevant for other infectious diseases including bacterial infections and tuberculosis.

Michal Grinstein-Weiss, PhD, associate professor at the Brown School and associate director of the Center for Social Development, has been asked to join the Clinton Global Initiative and to participate in its Financial Opportunity Working Group. The group focuses on developing sustainable programs to create financial opportunities for low- and moderate-income households.

L. Michael Brunt, newly named to lead the Section of Minimally Invasive Surgery at the School of Medicine, is a nationally recognized laparoscopic surgeon with expertise in abdominal, solid organ and biliary surgery.

The Washington University in St. Louis School of Law, in partnership with 2U Inc., has announced the launch of a new, fully online Master of Legal Studies (MLS) degree. The new degree is designed for non-lawyers seeking to expand their career opportunities by gaining an in-depth understanding of the U.S. legal system. The MLS curriculum will provide students with a solid foundation in legal analysis and the practical applications of the law, furthering their ability to think and communicate critically across a range of industries and professions.

More efforts should be directed at promoting interventions that have the potential to prevent multiple chronic diseases and extend healthy lifespans. School of Medicine and other researchers write in Nature that economic incentives in biomedical research and health care reward treating disease more than promoting good health.

Two Washington University in St. Louis administrators are receiving the Campus Leader Who Cares Award, presented by the Campus Safety, Health, and Environmental Management Association. Steven P. Hoffner, associate vice chancellor for operations, and H. Holden Thorp, PhD, provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs, are receiving the award for their commitment to and focus on environmental stewardship, health and safety issues at WUSTL and beyond.

Regis James O’Keefe, MD, PhD, is a highly regarded orthopaedic oncologist. He comes to the School of Medicine from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, where he is the chair of orthopaedics and rehabilitation.

New research provides an intriguing glimpse into the processes that establish connections between nerve cells in the brain. These connections, or synapses, allow nerve cells to transmit and process information involved in thinking and moving the body. Pictured is the study’s senior author, Azad Bonni, MD, PhD.

Scientists may be able to entomb the malaria parasite in a prison of its own making, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis report July 16 in Nature.

Cigarette smokers are more likely to commit suicide than people who don’t smoke, a relationship that has been attributed to the fact that numerous people with psychiatric disorders, who have higher suicide rates, also tend to smoke. But a new study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis finds that smoking itself may increase suicide risk and that policies to limit smoking reduce suicide rates.