DNA ligase encircles the DNA double helix.Scientists investigating an important DNA-repair enzyme now have a better picture of the final steps of a process that glues together, or ligates, the ends of DNA strands to restore the double helix. The enzyme, DNA ligase, repairs the millions of DNA breaks generated during the normal course of a cell’s life.
Van GelderRussell N. Van Gelder, M.D., Ph.D., is the new Bernard Becker Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the School of Medicine. Larry J. Shapiro, M.D., executive vice chancellor for medical affairs and dean of the School of Medicine, announced the appointment.
Eric P. Newman is one of the foremost American numismatists of the 20th and 21st centuries. On Oct. 25, Washington University in St. Louis will dedicate a state-of-the-art numismatics facility in his honor. The 3,000-square-foot Newman Money Museum, housed within the new Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, features items drawn from Newman’s renowned collection as well as a numismatics library and workspace for scholars. Displays survey the history of coins and paper money from their beginnings and to the present day, as well as the relationship between money, society, culture and commemoration and related issues such as production, inflation and counterfeiting.
Courtesy Photo*Corpus,* by Ann HamiltonAnn Hamilton, one of the most challenging and provocative installation artists working today, will lecture on “The Practice of Work: From Silence to Speech” at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 26. Hamilton — a 1993 recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship, popularly nicknamed the “genius grant” — creates site-specific environments that combine new technologies with unusual, often playful materials and an almost theatrical sense of staging.
Eric Woolsey*Fiddler on the Roof*The Performing Arts Department (PAD) in Arts & Sciences will present Fiddler on the Roof, one of Broadway’s most beloved musicals, in Edison Theatre Oct. 27 to Nov. 5. Set in pre-revolutionary Russia, the play tells the story of Tevye, a hardworking milkman who must find suitable husbands for his three eldest daughters. Yet the girls are strong-willed and, breaking with custom, prefer to make their own matches…
Moving new technology from the laboratory to patients’ bedsides takes more than just a clever idea. It often requires the combined expertise of university researchers who develop the technology and industry scientists who understand what it takes to get innovations to the marketplace. That’s exactly what two Washington University scientists had in mind when they created a consortium of experts from academia and industry.
A free play that uses a life-sized gelatin cadaver to explore the art and science of anatomy will take place Oct. 24 and 25 at the School of Medicine. “Corpus Delicti: Just Desserts,” which recently had a sold-out run at the University of Chicago, takes place in Holland during the Age of Enlightenment and is loosely based on Rembrandt’s 1632 painting, “The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp.”
The fourth week of October features three diverse and exciting speakers in the Assembly Series: Tony award-winner B.D. Wong will speak on breaking down cultural barriers in “All the World’s a Stage: From Exclusion to Inclusion” at 4 p.m., Monday, October 23 in Graham Chapel. Iranian born graphic novelist, Marjane Satrapi will discuss her work at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, October 25 in Graham Chapel. Cornell mathematician Steven Strogatz will speak on “Sync: The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order” at 4 p.m., Thursday, October 26 in Rebstock Hall, Room 215.
Pebbles, a giant tortoise at the Saint Louis Zoo, gets checked out by John P. Kirby, M.D. (far right), assistant professor of surgery and director of the School of Medicine’s Wound Healing Program. Kirby treated a wound on Pebbles’ shell, with assistance from Linda Stamm (far left) and Laurel Wiersema-Bryant, nurse practitioners at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, and Zoo veterinarian Michael Adkesson.
PolonskyKenneth S. Polonsky, M.D., has been elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors medical scientists in the United States can receive. Polonsky was honored for his professional achievement in the health sciences, specifically in the area of diabetes.