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Washington University develops COVID-19 saliva test

Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has developed a saliva-based test for COVID-19 that is faster and easier than the swab tests currently in use. The test could help simplify and expand the availability of COVID-19 diagnostic testing across broad populations.

Economy

Nurses over drivers? Elderly over youth? … Who gets vaccinated first?

In this age of coronavirus, with vaccine experimentation moving at historic pace to the clinical trials phase, the ideal inoculation policy would emphasize age more than work-exposure risk, according to a study involving Washington University in St. Louis economists.

Masks aren’t the only answer to keeping workers safe

Now more than ever, the nation must have an opportunity to build a more resilient and inclusive workforce. By addressing longstanding inequalities that have undervalued essential workers, these measures would ensure that no one is put in a position of choosing health over a paycheck.

Sanz publishes the first direct comparison of tool skill acquisition between two groups of chimpanzees

Researchers including Crickette Sanz, associate professor of biological anthropology in Arts & Sciences, published the first direct comparison of tool skill acquisition between two populations of chimpanzees, those at Republic of Congo’s Goualougo Triangle and those more than 1,300 miles to the east, in Gombe, Tanzania. Their findings underscore how the developmental trajectory of life skills can vary […]

Campus & Community

‘Ask the Doctors’ town hall tonight

What type of face mask is most effective? Will classrooms and other campus environments be safe for faculty and students this fall? What is the latest guidance for staying healthy? Get answers to these questions and more at a special “Ask the Doctors” town hall for the Danforth Campus community.

Architecture

Hoeferlin wins Exhibit Columbus research fellowship

Derek Hoeferlin, chair of landscape architecture and urban design at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, has been named a University Design Research Fellow for Exhibit Columbus 2020-21.

Obituaries

Obituary: Robert L. Williams II, founding director of Black Studies program, 90

Robert L. Williams II, professor emeritus of psychological and brain sciences and founding director of Washington University’s Black Studies program (now the Department of African & African-American Studies) in Arts & Sciences, died Aug. 12, 2020. He was 90.

Awards & Notables

Jolliff awarded Shoemaker Distinguished Scientist Medal

Bradley Jolliff, the Scott Rudolph Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences in Arts & Sciences and director of the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences, has been awarded the 2020 Eugene Shoemaker Distinguished Scientist Medal by NASA’s Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute, recognizing significant contributions to planetary science throughout his career.

School of Medicine faculty named to leadership roles at BJC

John Lynch, MD, professor of medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been named president of Barnes-Jewish Hospital. Meanwhile, Katherine Henderson, MD, assistant professor of clinical medicine at the School of Medicine, has been named the hospital’s chief medical officer.

Science & Technology

COVID-19 human milk studies should continue without stopping breastfeeding, researchers say

It is not easy to conduct human milk research during a pandemic. Yet despite the consistent lack of quality evidence for transmission of viral RNA from breast milk, some leaders are pushing ahead by altering public health and clinical practice guidance, according to E.A. Quinn, associate professor of biological anthropology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.