The mix of microbes living inside the gut can protect against obesity, but a healthy diet is critical, according to School of Medicine scientists who transplanted intestinal microbes from obese and lean twins into mice and fed the animals different diets. Pictured are researchers Vanessa Ridaura, a graduate student, and Jeffrey I. Gordon, MD, director of the Center for Genome Sciences and Systems Biology.
Growing up in Rio de Janeiro, Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959) was drawn to the itinerant musicians known as chorões, whose improvised concerts filled the streets and cafes. On Sept. 16, the Danforth University Center will launch its fall Chamber Music Series with Villa-Lobos’ Choros No. 2, as well as works by Emmanuel, Debussy, Schmitt and Saint-Saëns.
At Washington University in St. Louis, students in the School of
Engineering & Applied Science learn more than how to be an engineer.
With opportunities to go abroad to get hands-on experience beyond what
they learn in the classroom, they also learn to be leaders in a global
society. Sixteen WUSTL students went to Brisbane, Australia, for the International Experience program, sponsored
by the Department of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering
and the McDonnell Global Energy and Environment Partnership (MAGEEP).
Fuzhong Zhang, PhD, assistant professor of energy,
environmental and chemical engineering at Washington University in St.
Louis, works with Synechocystis 6803 — as well as other microbes and
systems — in the areas of synthetic biology, protein engineering and
metabolic engineering, with special focus on synthetic control systems
to make the organism reach its untapped prowess. He says the biotech world has to overcome several challenges to put the engineered microbes in the applications stage.
The Brown School is launching a new Public Health speaker series titled “Innovative Solutions in State and Local Agencies,” designed to help policy makers grapple with tough public health problems. All lectures are free and open to the public and will take place from noon-1 p.m. in Brown Lounge, Brown Hall. The series kicks off Wednesday, Sept. 11, with “The ‘Long Tail’ and Public Health: New Thinking For
Addressing Health Disparities.”
To read the joint letter that WUSTL Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton and Timothy M. Wolfe, president of the University of Missouri System, sent last month to the 10 members of Missouri’s congressional delegation, including U.S. Rep. William L. Clay, urging their support in helping close the innovation gap, visit here.
By blending their expertise, two materials science
engineers at Washington University in St. Louis changed the electronic
properties of new class of materials — just by exposing it to light.
The Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute at Washington University’s School of Law will host the International Law Weekend – Midwest Regional conference Sept. 19-21. The theme for this year’s conference
is “The Legal Challenges of Globalization: A View from the Heartland”
and the panels presented at this conference will address a broad range
of topics, emphasizing the impact of international law and globalization
on the Midwest.
With a one-year grant from Washington University’s
International Center for Advanced Renewable Energy and Sustainability
(I-CARES), researchers at Washington University in St. Louis plan to use
some high-tech methods to better understand the processes, mechanics
and interfaces that plants use to move iron from the soil, through water
and into the plant.
A panel discussion, titled “Conversations on Gender and Blackness in the Age of Trayvon Martin,” will open WUSTL’s African and African-American Studies fall colloquium series at 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 6, in the Women’s Building Formal Lounge. WUSTL faculty will lead the discussion, which includes a coffee reception at 10 a.m.