Page 431 – The Source | Washington University in St. Louis

Thurtene hosts benefit art auction this weekend

Thurtene, the Washington in St. Louis junior honorary, will host “Dream On,” a virtual art show and benefit auction, from noon Saturday, April 24 through Sunday, April 25. The art, which will be available to view starting at noon Friday, April 23, was submitted by local artists of all levels, from elementary school students to professional artists.

Cancer Research

Personalized cancer vaccines for breast, pancreatic cancers show promise

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine have shown that personalized cancer vaccines made using DNA can program the immune system to attack malignant tumors, including breast and pancreatic cancers.

Sociology

How racial violence affects Black Americans’ mental health

Black Americans experience an increase in poor mental health days during weeks when two or more incidents of anti-Black violence occur and when national interest surrounding the events is higher, according to new research involving a researcher at Washington University in St. Louis.

Students

Help celebrate 2021 graduates

Faculty, staff, friends and loved ones are invited to submit messages of support for the Class of 2021. Submit photo and video messages by Saturday, April 24.

Appointments & Promotions

Njoku named director of pediatric anesthesiology division

Dolores B. Njoku, MD, a noted clinician, researcher and mentor, has been named director of pediatric anesthesiology at the School of Medicine and anesthesiologist-in-chief at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. She also will be the new Rudolph L. and Mary Frances Wise Endowed Chair in Pediatric Anesthesiology.

Operations & Strategy

Olin-Brookings initiative to address opioid epidemic

The Bellwether Foundation Inc. has awarded Olin Business School and the Brookings Institution a $750,000 grant to improve the quality of life for people in St. Louis and across the country.

Business & Entrepreneurship

Shifting mindset increases managers’ willingness to invest in new technology

When faced with a cutting-edge technological idea, business leaders who approach the idea in more concrete “how” terms — rather than in abstract “why” terms — are less likely to be deterred by its novelty and more likely to recognize its utility, which increases their propensity to invest in the idea, according to new research from the Olin Business School.

Diversity & Inclusion

Prison Education Project wins Mellon Foundation grant

Washington University’s Prison Education Project has won a two-year, $980,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The award resulted from the Mellon Foundation’s “Future of Higher Learning in Prison” competition.

Biology

Mountain high

Sometimes overshadowed by neighboring Amazon forests, the forests of the Andes Mountains are helping to protect the planet by acting as a carbon sink, absorbing carbon dioxide and keeping some of this climate-altering gas out of circulation, according to biologists in Arts & Sciences and their partners from a Living Earth Collaborative working group.

Public Health

Washington University researchers to design detectors of airborne SARS-CoV-2

A team of researchers at Washington University is developing devices to detect the virus that causes COVID-19 in the air.