Newsroom Stories

Current census figures show that one in seven Americans is living below the poverty level, a rate that nears the record poverty levels of 1960. “The latest rise in the poverty rate illustrates how many more Americans are at risk of poverty and economic insecurity in this country,” says Mark R. Rank, PhD, poverty expert and the Herbert S. Hadley Professor of Social Welfare at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. 

Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have discovered a new drug target that could improve the effectiveness of radiation for hard-to-treat cancers.

Viola da gambist Elizabeth Macdonald, director of strings in Washington University’s Department of Music in Arts & Sciences, and harpsichordist Charles Metz, PhD, will launch WUSTL’s fall Danforth University Center Chamber Music Series at 8 p.m. Monday, Sept. 20.The concert, titled “The Golden Age of the Viola da Gamba and Harpsichord,” will highlight music for these two instruments, which reached their “golden age” during the first half of the 18th century.  

WUSTL’s 2010 United Way campaign began Sept. 8, with the goal of raising $615,000 for the United Way of Greater St. Louis. The United Way supports organizations in the St. Louis region that offer an array of services, including counseling and substance abuse recovery, affordable child care and disaster relief. This year’s goal of raising $615,000 is the university’s most ambitious yet.

An unprecedented five-year, $30 million effort to generate a first-of-its-kind map of all the major circuits in the human brain is being led by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of Minnesota’s Center for Magnetic Resonance Research.

Seasonal flu shots for School of Medicine employees will begin Sept. 20 at Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital and are scheduled to be provided through Oct. 21 at the Washington University Medical Center. 

Tony Award-nominated actor Stephen McKinley Henderson will discuss his life and work as part of an informal, Inside the Actors Studio-style dialogue at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 16, in Edison Theatre. Titled “An Evening with Stephen McKinley Henderson,” the event is presented in conjunction with the symposium “Uncovering/Discovering The Other,” which runs through Friday.  

The French senate approved a law Sept. 14 banning any veils that cover the face, making France the first European country to nationally impose such a ban. A WUSTL anthropologist who has written extensively on this subject says that the French government is finding it easier to fight clothing than to fight poverty and violence.

BBC ‘One-off’ prostate cancer tests backed for 60-year-olds 9/14/2010 A single blood test for all 60-year-old men could pick out the vast majority of those likely to die from prostate cancer, suggests a new study in the British Medical Journal. Professor Gerard Andriole, from the Washington University School of Medicine, said that while the findings […]

Students who enter medical school with high-debt levels, low scores on the Medical College Admissions Test or who are non-white are more likely to face difficulties that may prevent graduation or hinder acceptance into a residency program if they do graduate, according to a nationwide study of students enrolled in MD programs.