Newsroom Stories

The City of Clayton and the Clayton Fire Department awarded Life Saver Awards to Nikoleta Kolovos, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics, and Robert Barrack, MD, (shown) the Charles F. and Joanne Knight Distinguished Professor of Orthopedic Surgery.

More than 30 local high school juniors and seniors were on campus June 6 for the third annual Explore Engineering day, sponsored by the School of Engineering & Applied Science. The community outreach event allows students to work with WUSTL engineering faculty and students and get hands-on experience in engineering projects to promote critical thinking.

Shelby Jordan, a 1974 WUSTL graduate and an 11-year National Football League (NFL) veteran, was selected to the 2013 Divisional College Football Hall of Fame Class, as announced by the National Football Foundation Wednesday.

In 1934, Washington University in St. Louis constructed Brown Hall on its campus — the world’s first “bricks-and-mortar” building of a school of social work. Nearly 80 years later, the Brown School, an international leader in educating students in social work and public health, will take the next, necessary steps to ensure it remains a catalyst for change when site prep work begins on a two-year, $60 million expansion of its facilities. At the centerpiece is an innovative new building — east of Brown and Goldfarb Halls of approximately 105,000 square feet — for which site excavation will begin Wednesday, June 12.

In an effort to learn why some viruses such as influenza, Ebola and West Nile are so lethal, a team of U.S. researchers plans an $18.3 million comprehensive effort to model how humans respond to these viral pathogens. Participants include Washington University’s Michael Diamond, a West Nile expert.

Cancer cells’ appetite for sugar may have serious consequences for immune cell function. Scientists have shown that in low-sugar environments immune T cells start using energy-making structures known as mitochondria (highlighted in this image in yellow and orange). This switch can prevent T cells from making an inflammatory compound important for fighting cancers and some infections.

Timothy J. Wolf, OTD, an assistant professor in the Program in Occupational Therapy and in neurology at Washington University School of Medicine, has been elected to the board of directors of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA).

Nearly 60 years after the Supreme Court outlawed racial segregation in public schools, African American adolescents of all socio-economic backgrounds continue to face instances of racial discrimination in the classroom. A new study sheds light on that and points to the need for students of color to rely on personal and cultural assets to exceed academically. The study “African American Adolescents’ Academic Persistence: A Strengths-Based Approach,” was published online May 24 in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence.

In the June 5 issue of Neuron, WUSTL biologist Erik Herzog and his colleagues report the discovery of a crucial part of the biological clock: the wiring that sets its accuracy to within a few minutes out of the 1440 minutes per day. This wiring uses the neurotransmitter, GABA, to connect the individual cells of the biological clock in a fast network that changes strength with time of day.

The Brown School launched its Master in Public Health (MPH) program in 2009, implementing an innovative curriculum that uses transdisciplinary problem-solving to help students apply principles to improve population health, particularly among vulnerable populations. This fall, the program will offer its first two specializations — global health and epidemiology/biostatistics — providing flexibility for students to increase skill building through electives and offering them valuable experience in targeted areas of public health.