Newsroom Stories

Two Washington University in St. Louis faculty were among the 79 biomedical engineers and leaders elected this year to the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering College of Fellows.They are Shelly E. Sakiyama-Elbert, PhD, associate professor of biomedical engineering, and Younan Xia, PhD, the James M. McKelvey Professor of Biomedical Engineering.

At a time when the American economy needs the best and the brightest economic minds, prominent banker and philanthropist Sam B. Cook has given Washington University a critical resource to help develop the next generation of economic leaders with a gift of $1.5 million to establish a professorship in the Department of Economics in Arts & Sciences.

Three new three-week Summer Institutes for high school students will be offered at Washington University in St. Louis in 2011. The High School Summer Institutes — one of which focuses on creative writing, one on Japanese popular culture and on one pre-medical topics — are part of Washington University’s High School Summer Experiences program in Arts & Sciences.

Students perform a dance Feb. 5 in Edison Theatre at the Lunar New Year Festival, the annual event sponsored by Asian student groups on campus. 2011 is the Year of the Rabbit, and people born under this Chinese symbol are said to be articulate, talented and ambitious.

Teen mothers who eat breakfast have healthier weights and snacking habits and may influence healthy eating habits among their children, says a recent study by obesity prevention expert Debra Haire-Joshu, PhD, professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. “It’s important to look at dietary patterns among postpartum teens to help reduce weight retention and prevent intergenerational obesity,” she says. “Overall, breakfast consumption among postpartum teens is low and interventions are needed to encourage breakfast consumption among teen mothers.”

The Hindustan Times – Patna Edition
 How to turn bacteria against themselves
 02/09/2011 Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have explained a mechanism by which bacteria protect themselves from their own toxins. Bacteria often attack with toxins designed to hijack or even kill host cells. But they also have ways to […]

Strobe Talbott (right), president of the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., and former deputy secretary of state from 1994-2001, was on campus Feb. 7 and 8 speaking and meeting with students.

Bacteria often attack with toxins designed to hijack or even kill host cells. To avoid self-destruction, bacteria have ways of protecting themselves from their own toxins. Now, researchers have described one of these protective mechanisms, potentially paving the way for new classes of antibiotics that cause the bacteria’s toxins to turn on themselves.

Washington University School of Medicine researchers report they have identified a gene that limits damage to the lung during acute stress from illness, trauma or transplant.

The FDA, through the new Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, is considering banning outdoor tobacco product advertising at various distances from schools and playgrounds. The tobacco industry is challenging these rules on First Amendment grounds, arguing that they would lead to a near complete ban on tobacco advertising in dense urban areas. A new study by the Center for Tobacco Policy Research (CTPR) at Washington University in St. Louis found that a 1000-foot buffer would still allow for tobacco ads. Smaller buffer zones of 350 feet may result in almost no reduction of outdoor tobacco advertising.