Newsroom Stories

Scanning the DNA of two people with a rare disease has led scientists to identify the precise genetic error responsible for their disorder, which causes persistent lung, sinus and ear infections, male infertility, and sometimes a reversed orientation of major organs in the body. The defect affects hair-like structures called cilia that extend from many cells in the body.

Wayne M. Yokoyama, MD, and Charles F. Zorumski, MD, have been elected to the Institute of Medicine, a part of the National Academy of Sciences. Membership in the organization is one of the highest honors physician-scientists in the U.S. can receive.​

2012 graduate Elizabeth Phillips was named the 2012 NCAA Woman of the Year, as announced at a ceremony Sunday in Indianapolis. Phillips is the third NCAA Division III student-athlete to win the award, joining Ashley Jo Rowatt of Kenyon College (2003) and Laura Barito of Stevens Institute of Technology (2011).

The No. 5 women’s soccer team improved its overall record to 11-1-1 with a pair of home victories over New York University Oct. 12 and No. 20 Brandeis University Oct. 14. The Bears have a 3-0-1 mark in the University Athletic Association (UAA), and sit in a tie for first place with No. 1 Emory […]

The International Center for Advanced Renewable Energy and Sustainability (I-CARES) will celebrate its inaugural I-CARES day Friday, Oct. 19. The celebration will feature a talk by Peter H. Raven, former president of the Missouri Botanical Garden, on climate change and its impact on biodiversity, and a presentation by T.R. Kidder, professor and chair of anthropology, on the idea that we may be entering a new geological era, called the Anthropocene, in which humans are the primary geological change agents. There also will be activities for students, including a QR-code scavenger hunt.​

A molecule involved in asthma and allergies has now been shown to make mice resistant to skin cancer, according to Raphael Kopan, PhD, and his colleagues at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Four Arts & Sciences faculty at Washington University in St. Louis will explore the “politics, issues and theatrics” of this year’s presidential election during a 6 p.m. panel discussion
 Thursday, Oct. 18, in the Laboratory Sciences Building, Room 300. The event, which is part of the Arts & Sciences Connections Series, is free and open to the Washington University community. A
 5:30 p.m. reception in Lab Sciences’ Rettner Gallery will precede the discussion, titled “Decision 2012.” 



Engineer Tae Seok Moon has made the most complex logic circuit ever assembled in a single bacterium. The logic circuit, in which genes and the molecules that turn the genes on or off function as logic gates, the simple devices that form the basis for electronic circuits, is one step in an effort to make programmable bacteria that can make biofuels, degrade pollutants, or attack cancer or infections.

On Wednesday, Oct. 17, Meriwether will be at WUSTL for a screening of American Meat and panel discussion featuring diverse opinions on the subject. The 82-minute film, introduced by Meriwether, will begin at 6 p.m. in Simon Hall May Auditorium; the panel will follow and conclude at 8:30 p.m.​​

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