Newsroom Stories

Gastric bypass surgery has been thought to offer advantages, independent of weight loss, for improving insulin sensitivity and blood glucose levels in obese patients. But new research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis shows that those improvements are related to weight loss alone and not to the surgical procedure itself.

Actor Patrick Dempsey plays Dr. Derek Shepherd, a surgeon on the ABC drama Grey’s Anatomy. Washington University surgeon Susan E. Mackinnon advised the show on scenarios involving a hand injury suffered by the character.

Edward Geltman, MD, professor of medicine, has been named the first recipient of the Philip A. Ludbrook Award. The award will be given annually to a member of the Institutional Review Board (IRB) for outstanding service and dedication to the protection of human subjects involved in research.

Ah, December. Days grow shorter, checkout lines longer, and final exams inexorably closer. But on Dec. 2, audiences are invited to pause for an afternoon of “Joy and Wonder.” Presented by the Washington University Concert Choir and the Washington University Chamber Choir, the concert will feature a range of music relating to the holiday season.

A study is the first to identify a single gene that is associated with a significant number of cases of respiratory distress syndrome in babies born at or near full term.​ WUSTL pediatrician Jennifer A. Wambach is the study’s lead author. Findings will be published in the December issue of Pediatrics.

Respiratory conditions that restrict breathing such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are common killers worldwide. But no effective treatments exist to address the major cause of death in these conditions — excess mucus production. Now, Washington University researchers have described the molecular pathway responsible for excess mucus in airway cells and have used that information to design a series of new drugs that inhibit that pathway.

The No. 21 men’s basketball team improved its overall record to 5-0 with three victories a week ago. The Bears posted an 85-62 victory over Fontbonne University Tuesday at home, and then posted a pair of wins over Austin College (94-63) and Simpson College (71-66) Friday and Saturday at the Snyder Classic in Lincoln, Neb.

Nanostructures called BRIGHTs seek out biomarkers on cells and then beam brightly to reveal their locations. In the tiny gap between the gold skin and the gold core of the nanoparticle, there is an electromagnetic hot spot that lights up the reporter molecules trapped there. BRIGHTs, which shine about 1.7 x 1011 more brightly than isolated Raman reporters, are intended for use in noninvasive bioimaging.

They’ve shaken Shakespeare, humiliated Hollywood and affronted all the great books. Now the Reduced Shakespeare Company—those emperors of editing, those sultans of summary, those bad boys of abbreviation—is back and ready to tackle its most fearsome opponent yet: Santa Claus.

To encourage entrepreneurship, the university’s Bear Cub Fund program is now providing mentors and other hands-on guidance. Initial, one-page applications are due Dec. 10.