About The Source
The Source is a place for information, inspiration and for sharing stories about exciting discoveries and accomplishments at Washington University. Here, you’ll experience the research, scholarship and creativity that drive us every day. You’ll also get a glimpse of campus life and meet the people who inspire us: scientists, leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators, artists and authors. If you’re looking to explore a remarkable place where people matter and serious work is done, this is The Source.
The sticky science of underwater adhesives
Researchers at the McKelvey School of Engineering have received funding to engineer microbes that create an underwater adhesive based on, but stickier than, the natural adhesive made by mussels.
Washington University commits $100 million to MD scholarships, education
The Washington University School of Medicine will provide $100 million in scholarship funding, allowing as many as half of its medical students to attend tuition-free and providing others with partial support. Efforts to enhance the medical education program also will benefit.
Class Acts: Building resilient cities
Cities are both a leading cause and victim of global climate change, but they also hold great promise. In the first installment of Class Acts, a series celebrating the Class of 2019, seniors Marissa Lerner and Alexis Vidaurreta share their optimism and respective visions for cities that protect people and resources.
Could 2018 tariff impact been foreseen?
Researchers from Olin Business School explore the complexity of tariffs as a trade tool in a global economy in a new paper. The research also establishes a supply chain model to explain those effects. The model proposes that, in some cases, the effects were foreseeable when accounting for strategic multi-party interactions and competition.
$10 million gift aimed at improving treatments for mental illness
Philanthropists Andrew and Barbara Taylor and the Crawford Taylor Foundation have committed $10 million to the School of Medicine to continue research to investigate the scientific underpinnings of psychiatric illnesses, with the goal of improving diagnosis and treatment.
It doesn’t pay to play angry when negotiating
A new paper, authored by Washington University in St. Louis faculty and alumni from Olin Business School, reports findings from five different studies of subjects in a negotiation agreement. The takeaway: inorganic anger generally leaves parties of both parts feeling guilty, distrusted and needing to make amends afterward.
Creating sustainable bioplastics from electricity-eating microbes
Researchers in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis have figured out how to feed electricity to microbes to grow truly green, biodegradable plastic, as reported in the Journal of Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology.
Specialist enzymes make E. coli antibiotic resistant at low pH
New research from Arts & Sciences suggests that many “redundant” enzymes are actually specialists that ensure maximal growth across different environments. They also seem to increase resistance to antibiotics in conditions like those in the GI tract or urinary tract — raising concerns that current antibiotic susceptibility tests are inadequate.