Newsroom Stories

A team of researchers led by Young-Shin Jun at the McKelvey School of Engineering analyzed how light breaks down polystyrene, the plastic from which packing peanuts and disposable utensils are made. They found that small plastic particles interact with neighboring substances more easily than previously thought, including with things like heavy metals and organic contaminants.

Models based on an average cell are useful, but they may not accurately describe how individual cells really work. Molecular biologists use actual single-cell data to update the framework for understanding the relationship between cell growth, DNA replication and division in a bacterial system.

Far from orderly “brick-by-brick” assembly, the internal structures of cells are grown in stochastic bursts, according to physicist Shankar Mukherji in Arts & Sciences, author of a Jan. 6 study in Physical Review Letters.

Innovative discoveries, interesting students and inspiring speakers were all captured on video at Washington University in St. Louis. Here, The Source looks back at some of 2022’s highlights.

Washington University made huge strides in 2022 to make its programs and degrees more accessible to students of all backgrounds. From the Make Way initiative to full scholarships for low-income School of Law JD students to stipends for students who intern at St. Louis nonprofits and businesses, these programs build on the momentum of existing initiatives.

At the Washington University in St. Louis Board of Trustees meeting Dec. 2, several faculty members were granted tenure. Their new roles took effect Dec. 2.

Studying mice, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine have found that proteins made by stem cells to help regenerate the cornea may become new targets for treating and preventing injuries to the cornea related to dry eye disease.

A study from Washington University School of Medicine suggests a strategy for preventing a chronic, slow-growing type of blood cancer from progressing to an aggressive form of leukemia.

Scientists at Washington University in St. Louis discovered that under Mars-like conditions, manganese oxides can be readily formed without atmospheric oxygen. The study from the laboratory of Jeffrey Catalano in Arts & Sciences was published Dec. 22 in Nature Geoscience.

A team of scientists including physicist Johanna Nagy at Washington University in St. Louis successfully launched a balloon-borne experiment studying the early universe on Dec. 21. The instrument, called SPIDER, was carried aloft by a scientific balloon from its launch pad in Antarctica.