WashU Experts

Michael S. Kinch, associate vice chancellor and professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics in the School of Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis, is director of the Centers for Research Innovation in Biotechnology & Drug Discovery at the university. He is also author of the newly published “Prescription for Change,” an analysis of the looming crisis in the pharmaceutical industry.

Clarissa Rile Hayward, an associate professor of political science who studies the politics of power and resistance to power, offers advice for activists and others mobilizing to fight possible attacks on progressive programs during the Trump Administration.

Denying access to journalists is bad government practice, says Greg Magarian, professor of law and expert on Constitutional law, including freedoms of press and of free speech.

Richard Chapman, senior lecturer in film and media studies in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, is a veteran screenwriter and producer from his days in television and film. He offers advice to an animal that doesn’t yet exist because, at last reporting, the Trumps own no pets: “I know things are […]

Despite announcing in his first press conference that he would deal with a pharmaceutical industry “getting away with murder,” President-elect Donald Trump doesn’t seem to have a clear path for how he will reduce drug prices, said Rachel Sachs, associate professor of law and expert on drug regulation and health law.

The 21st Century Cures Act, sweeping mental health legislation passed this week by the U.S. Senate, will provide necessary funding to help those with mental illnesses if signed by President Obama, but should focus more on mental health outcomes of those suffering right now, says a mental health expert at Washington University in St. Louis.

Greater stress and anxiety resulting from economic insecurity may be at least partly to blame for the U.S. death rate that the government announced Dec. 8 has increased for the first time in a decade, says an expert on poverty and inequality at Washington University in St. Louis.

Despite promises made before Donald Trump’s inauguration, the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare, will be as difficult to outright repeal as it was to pass, says a health economist at Washington University in St. Louis.

The 21st Century Cures Act, the vast bill aimed at bolstering medical research and revamping the way drugs are approved, is a step in the right direction but is far from perfect, says an expert on the health care industry at the School of Law at Washington University in St. Louis.

Conservative columnist George Will is encouraging Republicans to have the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act passed through the U.S. Congress and ready for Donald Trump’s signature on his first day in office. While some see the REINS Act as a way for Congress to reassert its power to control the regulatory rulemaking process, an immediate push for its passage could force the first big battle over Democrats’ use of the filibuster and make it more complicated for Republicans to repeal Obamacare, says Steven S. Smith, a congressional expert at Washington University in St. Louis.