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Alzheimer’s missing link ID’d, answering what tips brain’s decline

Researchers at the School of Medicine have found that immune cells that typically protect neurons from damage may be the link between such early and late brain changes in Alzheimer’s disease. Breaking that link could lead to new approaches to delay or prevent the disease.

Campus & Community

What happened on July 4, 1776? Maybe not what you think

On that historic day 243 years ago, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. But it would be weeks before the Founding Fathers would actually sign the handwritten document now housed in the National Archives in Washington, D.C. In the meantime, official broadsides — one of which is showcased at Washington University in St. Louis — were printed and posted on the doors of courthouses across the nation.

Finance

Competence, confidence affect whether investor ‘sharks’ bite

An Olin Business School faculty member teamed up with three researchers from Michigan State University to examine investors’ decision-making, and they came up with a novel idea for a laboratory: ABC’s reality TV show “Shark Tank.”

Public Health

Treatment for common cause of diarrhea more promising

School of Medicine researchers have figured out how to grow the intestinal parasite Cryptosporidium in the lab, an achievement that will speed efforts to treat or prevent diarrhea caused by the parasite.

Business & Entrepreneurship

Meet WashU alum and media mogul Morgan DeBaun

Morgan DeBaun smiles in front of a blue and red background, sporting a Blavity shirt.

Morgan DeBaun (AB ’12) finds success as a media startup creator with Blavity, a platform that helps the Black community have a safe space online.

Economy

July 4 skies ‘could be empty’ in 2020 over trade war with China

If the proposed Trump Administration tariffs are imposed and continue into 2020, China’s likely strategy will be to use fireworks as a “political toy” heading into the election season, says a Washington University in St. Louis expert on international trade.

Cashen named Institutional Review Board chair

Amanda F. Cashen, MD, associate professor of medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been named executive chair of the university’s Institutional Review Board, the multidisciplinary group that reviews and approves protocols for research studies that involve human subjects.

Diversity & Inclusion

Celebrating 50 years of African and African American Studies

African and African American Studies, a program born out of student protest that recently became a department, celebrates its 50th year.

Arts & Culture

WashU Expert: Unplugging Kate Smith

Kate Smith was the “songbird of the south” and “the First Lady of radio,” a 20th-century superstar whose recording of “God Bless America” was still being played during Philadelphia Flyer and New York Yankees home games. But recently, both teams distanced themselves from Smith due to racist lyrics in a pair of her early recordings. Arts & Sciences’ Todd Decker, chair of music, helps unpack the controversy for USA Today.

Chemist Wencewicz receives teacher-scholar award

Tim Wencewicz, assistant professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences, has been recognized with a 2019 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award. He will use the funding for his research to help develop new antibiotics, to combat antibiotic resistance and to improve the university’s organic chemistry curriculum.