Newsroom Stories

The Supreme Court will hear several states’ legal challenges to the Affordable Care Act, ensuring that the court — in late June 2012 — will deliver a momentous statement about the ever-contentious constitutional balance between federal and state power. “The key element of the states’ lawsuits targets the act’s requirement that everyone in the country must purchase commercial health insurance,” says constitutional law expert Gregory P. Magarian, JD, professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis.

Nicole Aldrich will make her public debut as director of both the Washington University Concert Choir and the new Washington University Chamber Choir in a free performance at 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 9, in Graham Chapel. Titled “Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind: Music for Fall and Winter,” the program will include works by Johann Kuhnau, Giovanni Gabrieli, Gustav Holst and Johannes Brahms, among others.

Peter Wyse Jackson, PhD, was installed as the George Engelmann Professor of Botany in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis in a ceremony held in Holmes Lounge, Ridgley Hall, Nov. 21. Wyse Jackson became president of the Missouri Botanical Garden in September 2010 and, by tradition, the president of the garden is also awarded the professorship at WUSTL

Many websites and magazine articles offer ideas about how to lose weight over the holidays, but Connie Diekman, director of university nutrition at Washington University in St. Louis, says that people need to realize that weight loss during this time generally isn’t realistic. A little advance planning can ensure that, while people may not actually lose weight, they can keep weight gain in check.

Women’s basketball head coach Nancy Fahey became the fastest women’s basketball coach in NCAA history to reach 600 career wins with a 62-52 victory over Hendrix College Nov. 26 at the WU Field House. Fahey reached the 600-win milestone in just her 706th career game at WUSTL. Updates also included on Thanksgiving holiday basketball tournements, football postseason honors and swimming and diving preseason rankings.

New research by Richard Grucza, PhD, at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis shows that a legal drinking age of less than 21 is linked to a higher risk of homicides and suicides among adult women.

A drug commonly used to treat seizures appears to make eye tumors less likely to grow if they spread to other parts of the body, according to new research at the School of Medicine. Their findings are available online in the journal Clinical Cancer Research.

Pediatricians often treat young children who have frequent bouts of wheezing with a daily dose of an inhaled steroid to keep asthma symptoms at bay. But results of a recent study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine, including Leonard B. Bacharier, MD, are likely to change that.

Studying family members suspected of having Alzheimer’s disease, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a gene that causes a rare disorder highlighted by memory loss and motor impairments. The condition is known as Kufs disease, but scientists say the discovery paves the way to development of a genetic test for Kufs and to therapies to treat dementia, which is a hallmark of Kufs and of other neurodegenerative conditions, such as Alzheimer’s disease. 

Parinaz Massoumzadeh, PhD, staff scientist in the Department of Radiology, was one of eight American women chosen to participate in a U.S.-Brazil exchange program to recruit, retain and advance women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.