Newsroom Stories

Rare mutations that shut down a single gene are linked to lower cholesterol levels and a 50 percent reduction in the risk of heart attack, according to new research led by Nathan Stitziel, MD, PhD, of the School of Medicine. The gene, called NPC1L1, is of interest because it is the target of the drug ezetimibe, often prescribed to lower cholesterol.

Washington University, St. Louis Children’s Hospital and the March of Dimes are launching the March of Dimes Prematurity Research Center at Washington University in St. Louis.

A study in which more than 43,000 children were evaluated for head trauma offers an unprecedented picture of how children most frequently suffer head injuries, report physicians at Washington University School of Medicine and the University of California, Davis, School of Medicine.

In school-age children previously diagnosed with depression as preschoolers, a key brain region involved in emotion is smaller than in their peers who were not depressed, scientists at the School of Medicine have shown.

Though the rhetoric in Washington, D.C., may seem to favor a push on progress, broad-based individual tax reform is not possible in the short term, though other opportunities for reform may still exist, says an expert on federal income tax and tax law at Washington University in St. Louis. Adam Rosenzweig, JD, discusses the possibility of tax reform in the lame-duck session.

Making friends is often extremely difficult for people with social anxiety disorder and to make matters worse, people with this disorder tend to assume that the friendships they do have are not of the highest quality. The problem with this perception, suggests new research from Washington University in St. Louis, is that their friends don’t necessarily see it that way.

Knight Hall and Bauer Hall are the latest buildings at Washington University in St. Louis to earn LEED Gold certification for their green design and construction. Home to Olin Business School, Knight and Bauer halls feature locally sourced and recycled materials, high-tech glass and an innovative layout that fosters collaboration.

Cats and humans have shared the same households for at least 9,000 years, but we still know very little about how our feline friends became domesticated. An analysis of the cat genome by School of Medicine researchers reveals some surprising clues. Pictured is a blue Abyssinian cat.

While political and judicial rhetoric around unions has softened in recent years, images of the past still haunt labor, argue two Washington University in St. Louis researchers. In “Re-Assembling Labor,” published online Nov. 5 in Social Science Research Network, the authors seek to draw the lessons of assembly into contemporary labor law — to re-assemble labor law around the theory and doctrine of assembly that formed its early core.

With Republicans gaining control of Congress after the midterm elections, Speaker of the House John Boehner insists that President Barack Obama could get “burned” if he uses executive action to move forward on immigration reform during the remainder of his presidency. Obama is well within his rights to proceed with the temporary measures he is considering, says an immigration law expert at Washington University in St. Louis.