Newsroom Stories

Access to required anesthetic agents for a lethal injection is quickly disappearing, leaving the future of the death penalty in the United States in question. “Because the European Union opposes the death penalty, it prohibits the export of goods for executions [and] requires a time-consuming preauthorization review for every shipment of a potential ‘dual use’ pharmaceutical,” says Rebecca Dresser, JD, biomedical ethics expert and professor of law and of medicine at Washington University in St. Louis. “Capital cases are expensive, and state budgets are tight. High costs and concern about erroneous convictions have led a few states to abolish the death penalty in recent years. Barriers to obtaining lethal injection drugs could lead more states to do away with the death penalty altogether.”

The Mosaic Project announces a number of important updates as part of its efforts toward improving diversity and inclusion for students at WUSTL. Because of the hard work and leadership of a dedicated group of students, faculty and staff, the Bias Report and Support System is live and the Center for Diversity and Inclusion is under development to open in 2014. In addition, a campus climate survey will be sent to all Danforth campus students on Feb. 16 and a new stand-alone community values program for undergraduate student orientation will launch this fall.

Some WUSTL faculty members have received awards from the Fulbright Program for academic pursuits in areas ranging from architecture to education to medicine. 

A WUSTL team learned last month that they had won the Gold Medal for their analysis of a problem during the international University Physics Competition, held in November. Using the principles of physics, they predicted characteristics of an animal on an extraterrestrial planet.

The School of Medicine’s 10th Annual Art Show, which features works by students, faculty and staff, is in the Farrell Learning and Teaching Center atrium through Friday, Feb. 21.

Although many health professionals who treat people with psychiatric problems overlook their patients’ smoking habits, new research at the School of Medicine shows that people who struggle with mood problems or addiction can safely quit smoking and that kicking the habit is associated with improved mental health.

Researchers at the School of Medicine have demonstrated a new approach to treating muscular dystrophy. Mice with a form of the disease showed improved strength and heart function when treated with nanoparticles loaded with rapamycin, an immunosuppressive drug recently found to improve recycling of cellular waste.

Daniel Giuffra, a freshman and Annika Rodriguez Scholar at Washington University in St. Louis, discussed his anti-smoking work as part of a recent U.S. Food and Drug Administration news conference announcing a new effort to curb tobacco use among at-risk youth.

Bruce Lindsey, dean of architecture, and Peter MacKeith, associate professor of architecture, both have won important honors in the 2013-14 Architectural Education Awards.

In conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the surgeon general’s landmark report on smoking, the Brown School’s Center for Public Health Systems Science, in partnership with the Tobacco Control Legal Consortium, has published two new tobacco control guides — Policy Strategies and Pricing Policy — that aim to give state and local communities the guidance and resources needed to move tobacco-control policies forward.