Newsroom Stories

The Asiatic wild ass (Equus hemionus) disappeared from the Negev, the desert region in southern Israel, in the 1920s. But a remnant herd survived in the Shah of Iran’s zoo. Some of these animals were reintroduced to the desert beginning in 1982. Recently scientists at Ben-Gurion University in Israel and Washington University in St. Louis have been inventing clever new ways to check on the status of these famously elusive animals.

As part of its Clinton Global Initiative University efforts, Washington University in St. Louis has announced a major institutional commitment to action around the important issue of sustainability.

The April 12 conference at the School of Medicine is open to faculty, students and the public, but advance online registration by April 1 is encouraged. Shown is Joseph Gondovo, a patient in Nigeria who receives treatment for lymphatic filariasis, a neglected tropical disease that can cause grotesquely swollen limbs. ​

New research raises doubts that workplace wellness programs save money, at least in the short term. Shown is Mark McDevitt, a staff nurse at Missouri Baptist Medical Center, having his finger pricked for various tests during a BJC wellness fair.

Washington University Professor Gerald L. Early, PhD, a noted essayist and American culture critic, will receive a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame in The Loop. An induction ceremony will be at 11:30 a.m. Thursday, April 11, outside the Moonrise Hotel, 6177 Delmar Blvd. His star will be embedded at a later time near the corner of Delmar and Eastgate Avenue after construction is completed on the first phase of WUSTL’s Loop Student Living Initiative.

More than 60 of the 118 innovative, far-reaching projects that Washington University in St. Louis students have committed to accomplish as part of this year’s Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) April 5-7 will be on display at Faces of Hope. Also, WUSTL leaders will announce the university’s institutional Commitment to Action, a significant investment in a more sustainable future, during the event from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, March 27, in the Danforth University Center, 6475 Forsyth Blvd.

Mindfulness — paying attention to one’s current experience in a nonjudgmental way — might help us to learn more about our own personalities, new research from Washington University in St. Louis suggests.

A groundbreaking for a new, $50 million Shriners Hospitals for Children-St. Louis recently was held on the Washington University Medical Center campus. The planned hospital, at the corner of Clayton Road and Newstead Avenue, will replace the Shriners Hospital in Frontenac. Shown is a rendering of what the building will look like from Interstate 64/Highway 40.

In an engineering breakthrough, a Washington University in St. Louis biomedical researcher has discovered a way to use light and color to measure oxygen in individual red blood cells in real time. The technology, developed by Lihong Wang, PhD, the Gene K. Beare Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering, could eventually be used to determine how oxygen is delivered to normal and diseased tissues or how various disease therapies impact oxygen delivery throughout the body.

Playwright Sarah Ruhl, author of the Tony- and Pulitzer-nominated In the Next Room (or the vibrator play), will discuss her work for the Performing Arts Department April 3. The PAD will produce Ruhl’s provocative, critically acclaimed comedy as its spring Mainstage production April 19-28.