Newsroom Stories

A small molecule called VIP, known to synchronize time-keeping neurons in the brain’s biological clock, has the startling effect of desynchronizing them at higher dosages, says a research team at Washington University in St. Louis. Neurons knocked for a loop by a burst of VIP are better able to re-synchronize to abrupt shifts in the light-dark cycle like those that make jet lag or shift work so miserable.

University of Missouri-St. Louis chancellor emeritus Blanche Touhill and Washington University emeritus chancellor William Danforth led the formation of a joint undergraduate engineering program between the two schools, which saw its first class in the fall of 1993. Fast-forward 20 years and it has graduated nearly 650 students. Since 2008 the program has grown nearly 50 percent, and about 75 percent of the graduates stay in the St. Louis area.

Christopher Gill, PhD, has received a four-year, $398,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to promote the improved safety of cyber-physical systems such as cars and planes.

The final results of a stroke-prevention study in patients with narrowed brain arteries confirm earlier findings: Medication plus lifestyle changes are safer and more effective for preventing stroke than a surgical technique called stenting. Pictured is a narrowed brain artery kept open with a stent.

Ram Dixit’s lab at Washington University in St. Louis has shown that a protein named after the katana, or samurai sword, plays a crucial role in patterning the “skeleton” inside plant cells. The work provides a clue to the long-standing mystery of how the cytoskeletons within both plant and animal cells become organized in function-specific patterns.

As America’s longest war comes to an end, WUSTL panelists join author/journalist Fariba Nawa to bring their perspectives on the future of Afghanistan.

Sir Christopher Greenwood, LLB, the British judge on the International Court of Justice, will discuss how the International Court of Justice works to bring about world peace at noon Wednesday, Oct. 30, in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom of Anheuser-Busch Hall.

Nirupama Rao, Indian ambassador to the United States, spoke about U.S. and India relations during a visit to Washington University in St. Louis Oct. 19. Rao’s lecture served as the capstone to the Washington University in St. Louis-Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB) Corporate Conclave. Leadership from WUSTL, IITB and several major international corporations gathered in St. Louis for the conclave, aimed at strengthening the U.S.-India connection related to innovation and education, particularly in addressing pressing global issues.

Remember the thrill of trick-or-treating as a child? The excitement of going door-to-door on Oct. 31? Well, here’s your chance to relive that treasured childhood tradition — 2013 style! It’s called Trick or Tweet, and the treat at the end could be an iPad Mini for an Arts & Sciences undergrad.

Among the victims who lost their lives in Bosnia during the 1992-1995 genocide were 8,000 Muslim males living in Srebrenica whose bodies were dumped into mass graves. There was little hope for their loved ones of identifying their remains until the advent of DNA technology. For the Holocaust Memorial Lecture, anthropologist Sarah Wagner will tell the story of how science helped close a painful chapter for the millions who lived through the worst atrocity in European history since World War II.