Newsroom Stories

Baseball Hall of Fame manager Tony La Russa got personal with the Washington University in St. Louis Class of 2014 at its 153rd Commencement ceremony May 16. “The essence of personalization,” he told the more than 14,000 graduates, parents, friends and family members gathered in the Quad, “is that you personalize your feelings about yourself. … Care about what you represent and what you think of you. And then you translate this to the people that you work with: respect, trust and care.”

In an effort to study causes and find solutions, Washington University in St. Louis faculty from across disciplines are examining economic insecurity through the university’s Livable Lives Initiative. One of the products of this interdisciplinary collaboration is a new book, “Working and Living in the Shadow of Economic Fragility.”

Biology researchers at Washington University in St. Louis are placing their bets on the wild side as they prepare a pack of social amoeba for competition Friday, May 16, in the first-ever Dicty World Race, an international science competition that carries a $5,000 prize for the single-celled organism deemed to be the “smartest and fastest” in negotiating a microscopic maze.

Washington University’s 153rd Commencement is at 8:30 a.m. Friday, May 16, in Brookings Quadrangle on the Danforth Campus. The university will award 3,030 degrees to 2,899 undergraduate, graduate and professional students. Baseball Hall of Famer Tony La Russa will deliver the 2014 Commencement address and receive an honorary degree.

Antidepressants can reduce production of the main ingredient of Alzheimer’s brain plaques, according to new research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of Pennsylvania. The plaques are highlighted in red in this image of a mouse’s brain.

Interdisciplinary student teams presented innovations designed to solve problems in health care at IDEA Labs’ Demo Day last month. Engineering student Matthew Burkhardt (seated) won a summer internship through the university’s Skandalaris Center to continue developing his team’s invention. His teammates are (from left) Yuni Teh, Katrina Leyden, Adina Stoica and Elizabeth Rosenberg.​

Four School of Medicine nurses recently received the 2014 Excellence in Nursing Award from St. Louis Magazine, honoring local nurses who have made a difference in the lives of their patients and colleagues. Several others were honored as finalists.

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Washington University researchers are studying African Americans with diabetes to learn whether vitamin D can slow the development of cardiovascular problems. Shown is principal investigator Carlos Bernal-Mizrachi, MD, with study patient Helen Randall.

A newly identified difference between female and male brains with multiple sclerosis (MS) may help explain why so many more women than men get the disease, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis report.