Scientists are beginning to talk about re-engineering crop plants so that, like legumes, they will have on-site nitrogen-fixing systems, either in root nodules or in the plant cells themselves. The structure of a protein called NolR that acts as a master off-switch for the nodulation process, published in the April 29 issue of PNAS, brings them one step closer to this goal.
An interdisciplinary group of graduate students including Washington University’s (from left) Anurag Agarwal, Whitney Grither and Hirak Biswas was one of 10 winning teams in the Breast Cancer Startup Challenge. The international competition aimed to bring breast cancer discoveries out of the lab and closer to market to help patients.
Provost Holden Thorp, PhD, discusses the important role of the humanities in American higher education in delivering the Phi Beta Kappa/Sigma Xi Lecture for the Assembly Series earlier this month. Held annually, the lecture is part of the Phi Beta Kappa initiation ceremony. This year, 81 students were inducted into the prestigious honor society.
Several offices in facilities management at the School of Medicine are consolidating services and business operations beginning May 5. They will be located on the first floor of Olin Residence Hall. Custodial services, facilities engineering and parking and transportation will merge in the newly named Facilities Integrated Service Center (FISC).
The School of Medicine is home to an internationally renowned center for multidisciplinary research of neurofibromatosis and comprehensive care of patients affected by it. The university’s Neurofibromatosis Center will host a symposium May 16 that will bring together patients, their family members and researchers to discuss the latest insight into the diagnosis and treatment of NF.
WUSTL media specialist and LouFest founder Brian Cohen recommends tonight’s Lost in the Trees concert. The band’s newest album bursts with energy and catchy songwriting.
PB&Joy, WUSTL’s annual food drive, collected a record 16,908 pounds of nutritious, kid-friendly food for Operation Food Search this month. That’s more than double the amount collected last year.
Dedric Carter, PhD, has been appointed to the newly created position of associate provost and associate vice chancellor for innovation and entrepreneurship at Washington University in St. Louis. He has been associate dean for international education and research and professor of the practice in the School of Engineering & Applied Science. The appointment is effective June 1, according to Holden Thorp, PhD, university provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs; and Henry S. Webber, executive vice chancellor for administration.
Large regions of the genome that were once referred to as “junk” DNA have been linked to human heart failure, according to research led by Jeanne Nerbonne, PhD, of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
The Community Service Office will hold a brown-bag session at noon Monday, April 28, in Danforth University Center, Room 233, to discuss ways to expand the K-12 Connections program.