Newsroom Stories

The Supreme Court’s ruling on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will have a major impact on the presidential campaign, says Timothy D. McBride, PhD, health economist and associate dean for public health at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. “The health reform legislation was the signature piece of social legislation passed by President (Barack) Obama’s administration in his first term,” he says. How the court’s decision will influence the election could be quite complex, says McBride. The court is hearing arguments in the case March 26-28

Four applications of the new imaging technique photoacoustic tomography are moving into clinical trials. One is to visualize the sentinel lymph nodes that are important in breast cancer staging; a second to monitor early response to chemotherapy; a third to image melanomas; and the fourth to image the gastrointestinal tract. Biomedical engineer Lihong Wang believes photoacoustic tomography might also allow early diagnosis of cancer because the technique can reveal the hypermetabolism that is cancer’s hallmark.

Seismologists have just returned from a cruise in the Western Pacific to lay the instruments for a seismic survey that will follow the water chemically bound to or trapped in the down-diving Pacific Plate at the Mariana trench, the deep trench to which Avatar director James Cameron is poised to plunge.

Susan E. Mackinnon is one of three U.S. physicians to be honored with a Clinical Excellence Award by Castle Connolly Medical Ltd., which publishes “America’s Top Doctors” and other guides to choosing physicians. She received the award March 26 in New York.

The Washington University Department of Orthopaedic Surgery is hosting young women from St. Louis-area high schools to encourage them to pursue careers in orthopaedic surgery and engineering. The program, called the Perry Initiative, aims to get young women interested in those technical fields where women currently comprise only 7 percent of the professional workforce.

David Levine, a fourth-year medical student, and his wife, Eli, learn that Levine matched in internal medicine at New York University at Match Day March 16. This year, 121 students matched to internships or residencies nationwide and in Canada. 

Students in the McDonnell International Scholars Academy pose in front of the Statue of Liberty on a cruise to see the Manhattan skyline March 11. As part of its leadership training program, the academy takes scholars each spring to New York or Washington, D.C. During the New York trip the week of spring break, scholars met with leaders from the financial sector and international politics.

Fracture, fragmentation and juxtaposition. Over the course of the 20th century, such modernist techniques would become defining traits of both popular and avant-garde film, which in turn would profoundly influence the work of the contemporary British artist John Stezaker. Later this month, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will present three classic films — all selected by Stezaker himself — as part of its Fringe Figure Film Series.

Inner Horn is a small country. So small, in fact, that only one citizen at a time can fit inside. But when Inner Horn unexpectedly shrinks, it sparks a crisis in neighboring Outer Horn, which falls to a jingoistic dictator. Such is the premise of The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil (2005), a wickedly funny and wildly original political allegory by George Saunders. On March 27 and 29, Saunders, the Visiting Hurst Professor of Creative Writing, will deliver a pair of events for The Writing Program in Arts & Sciences.

Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has received nearly $4.2 million from the Alzheimer’s Association to accelerate the launch of the first clinical trials to prevent Alzheimer’s disease before symptoms become apparent. John C. Morris, MD, the Harvey A. and Dorismae Hacker Friedman Professor of Neurology, heads the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer’s Network at the School of Medicine.