Newsroom Stories

Part of the risk for alcohol dependence is genetic. The same is true for eating disorders. Now, School of Medicine researchers have found that some of the same genes likely are involved in both. They report that people with alcohol dependence may be more genetically susceptible to certain types of eating disorders and vice versa.

An interdisciplinary team of researchers and students from the School of Engineering and Applied Science, the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts and Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis is working to create a more sustainable future for the university. Over the last year, teams have developed an experimental framework for testing environmentally friendly redevelopment strategies in a group of University-owned apartment buildings north of the Delmar Loop.

A recent report from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor indicates that there are significantly fewer female entrepreneurs than male entrepreneurs around the world. This is not the case, however, at Washington University in St. Louis, where more than 40 percent of successful companies started by recent graduates through the university’s business entrepreneurship courses have been founded by women.

The School of Medicine has received a $7.8 million grant to determine whether the length of time red blood cells (RBCs) are stored affects organ failure in critically ill children who receive RBC transfusions. Pictured is Philip Spinella, MD, one of study’s principal investigators, with Ronald Jackups, MD, PhD, in the blood bank at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.

This summer, 75 teachers from five St. Louis area school districts and two charter schools spent two intensive weeks on the Washington University in St. Louis campus kicking off a yearlong professional development program called STEM Teacher Quality Initiative.

Explore Leader student volunteers are preparing international students for life on campus — greeting them at the South 40, helping them open checking accounts and even taking them shopping at Target.  Before classes start, the Office of International Students & Scholars will assist 250 undergraduates and 600 graduate students — many of whom have never traveled to the United States. ​

4,000 glow sticks, 50 academic progams, 100 First 40 events make the start of the school year special for new students.

There is programming capacity, and then there are the ways people actually process information. As anyone still convalescing from a software update might tell you, these are not necessarily the same things. We sat down with Heather Corcoran to discuss the emerging field of “interaction design,” which emphasizes the importance of the user experience.

Washington University’s main move-in day in the South 40 residence halls for new students is Thursday, Aug. 22. Some 1,600 new students (freshmen, transfer and exchange) are arriving for the 2013-14 academic year that begins Aug. 27. Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton will lead university staff members and upperclass student volunteers in a 7:30 a.m. pep rally as they prepare to welcome the new students and assist with move in throughout the day.

In patients with early Alzheimer’s disease, disruptions in brain networks emerge about the same time as chemical markers of the disease appear in the spinal fluid, School of Medicine researchers have shown. Pictured is senior author of the study, Beau Ances, MD, PhD, associate professor of neurology and of biomedical engineering.