Newsroom Stories

In search of better cancer treatments, Xiaowei Wang, PhD, and his colleagues at the School of Medicine have designed synthetic molecules that combine the advantages of two experimental RNA therapies.

The World Health Organization has released new guidelines for the treatment of severe acute malnutrition, based in large part on research at the School of Medicine. Shown is the school’s Mark Manary, MD, whose research helped spur the changes.

Heart disease, cancer and diabetes are chronic diseases that account for $1.1 billion in hospital charges, affecting many individuals and families. The need to better understand these issues is examined in the fifth and final policy brief from the groundbreaking study “For the Sake of All: A Report on the Health and Well-Being of African Americans in St. Louis.”

Stressbuster volunteers provide free backrubs to students, faculty and staff. The next Stressbusters event is the Stress-Free Zone, 1-3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 8, at Olin Library. Volunteer Delia Chassaing says massage helps reduce stress, muscle tension and anxiety.

A 60-acre plot in Washington University in St. Louis’ Tyson Research Center has been named a Forest Global Earth Observatory, or ForestGEO. The oak-hickory forest in the rolling foothills of the Ozarks joins a network of 51 long-term forest study sites in 23 countries, including eight others in the United States. Together, the forests, containing roughly 8,500 species and 4.5 million individual trees, comprise the largest, systematically studied network of forest-ecology plots in the world.

Coffee or tea? One of founders of an emerging field that combines economics and brain science reports new insights into decisions in which two choices are equally appealing.

The members of the Stereotypes, Washington University’s all-male a cappella ensemble, compete Friday, Dec. 6, for the title (and the tiara) of the Mr. Stereotype pageant. Music director and junior Kevin Vondrak talks about the group’s repertoire and new four-song EP.

For Amazon’s recently announced drone delivery system to get off the ground, the company will have to solve numerous difficult technological challenges. Chief among them will be increasing battery life, getting the drones to work without a central command and to “think” on their own, and determining what kind of navigation sensors they will use. As complicated as those tasks may be, says a WUSTL robotics expert, they will be much more easily solved than the seemingly more simple issues of regulation and insurance.

The hope was to repair a friendship. The result was a masterwork. On Dec. 9, the St. Louis Symphony’s Bjorn Ranheim and Shawn Weil will join the Washington University Symphony Orchestra for a performance of Johannes Brahms’ “Double Concerto in A for Violin and Cello.”​

David M. Holtzman, MD, and Randall J. Bateman, MD, have been chosen as co-recipients of the Chancellor’s Award for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Washington University in St. Louis.