Student Gorham excels in the lab, on the track

Personal experience told Lisa Gorham, captain of the Washington University in St. Louis cross-country, track and indoor track teams, that team sports and adolescent mental health are linked. But what would the data say? Gorham has just published her findings in a leading journal — a rare accomplishment for an undergraduate researcher.

How team sports change a child’s brain

Adult depression has long been associated with shrinkage of the hippocampus, a brain region that plays an important role in memory and response to stress. Now, new research from Washington University in St. Louis has linked participation in team sports to larger hippocampal volumes in children and less depression in boys ages 9 to 11.

Women shaped cuisine, culture of ancient Cahokia

“Feeding Cahokia: Early Agriculture in the North American Homeland” (2019 University of Alabama Press).
Long before corn was king, the women of Cahokia’s mysterious Mississippian mound-building culture were using their knowledge of domesticated and wild food crops to feed the thousands of Native Americans who flocked to what was then North America’s largest city, suggests a new book by a paleoethnobiologist at Washington University in St. Louis. “Feeding Cahokia” sets the record straight on America’s first farmers while offering a roadmap for rediscovering the highly nutritious native foods they once cultivated, including a North American cousin of quinoa.

Topical immunotherapy keeps skin cancer risk at bay

dermatologist conducts skin exam on patient
A combination of two topical creams lowers the risk that patients will develop squamous cell carcinoma of the skin, according to new research at the School of Medicine. The combination already has been shown to clear precancerous skin lesions from sun-damaged skin.

Your March Madness chances, or putting a quintillion into focus

You — as part of the 10 percent of the American population who participates in this form of technically illegal gambling — have a 1-in-9.2 quintillion chance of picking the perfect March Madness bracket, says a statistical expert from Washington University in St. Louis.

Performance-based pay linked to employee mental-health problems, study shows

In the first big-data study combining objective medical and compensation records with demographics, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis and Aarhus University in Denmark discovered once a company switches to a pay-for-performance process, the number of employees using anxiety and depression medication increased by 5.7 percent over an existing base rate of 5.2 percent.

Washington People: Erik Herzog

Erik Herzog
Erik Herzog, professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, studies the molecules, cells and circuits of mammalian circadian timing. He also supports and encourages younger neuroscience researchers, from elementary school all the way through doctoral programs.

Klingensmith, Andriole elected to prestigious medical academy

Mary E. Klingensmith, MD, and Gerald L. Andriole, MD, surgeons at Washington University School of Medicine, have been elected to the American College of Surgeons Academy of Master Surgeon Educators. Launched in 2017, the academy recognizes surgeon educators poised to advance the science and practice of surgical education and training.