Research Wire

For the first time, a study by researchers including biologist Susanne Renner in Arts & Sciences helps solve the mystery of the timing of falling leaves in autumn by revealing the pivotal role of the summer solstice.

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis found the first abiotic pathway for RNA hydrolysis in iron-rich soils and sediments. Understanding how RNA breaks down under given conditions is critical to harnessing the molecule for use in emerging technologies.

Kristen Prufrock, in the Department of Neuroscience at the School of Medicine, is teaming up with anatomists from several other institutions to identify the cellular principles governing how facial bones take shape.

Biologist Matthew Austin in Arts & Sciences published a study in the American Journal of Botany that describes changes to the flowering time and other important life cycle events in Leavenworthia species, a group of small flowering plants found in glades in Missouri.

In a study published in Medical Physics, researchers in the lab of Abhinav Jha at the McKelvey School of Engineering evaluated artificial intelligence techniques for cleaning up medical images based on performance in clinical tasks.

John A. Cooper, MD, PhD, a professor in biochemistry and molecular biophysics at the School of Medicine, received a one-year $613,251 grant from National Institute of Mental Health, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

With funding from the National Science Foundation, William Yeoh at the McKelvey School of Engineering will use artificial intelligence to develop a fair, equitable and efficient scheduling system for courts.

Researchers in Randall Martin’s lab at the McKelvey School of Engineering won a $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to study, and improve, the accuracy and resolution of models used to understand chemicals’ behavior in the atmosphere.

Physicist Sheng Ran in Arts & Sciences has won a prestigious National Science Foundation award for a project investigating new quantum materials. The research has potential applications for next-generation electronics.

Young-Shin Jun, at the McKelvey School of Engineering, co-authored a review paper in Chemical Reviews that celebrates scientific advances in the field of interfacial reactions, which happen at the boundary where materials in different phases meet.