News highlights for December 1, 2010

Reuters.com
Shoulder surgery can curtail an NFL career
11/30/2010
A problem shoulder might shorten the career of college athletes who are talented enough to get drafted by a professional football team, according to a new study. The study focused on college players drafted into National Football League (NFL) teams. By the time they were drafted, all of the athletes had already had shoulder dislocations serious enough to require surgery to stabilize the joint. “Not everyone who suffers a dislocation will undergo stabilization surgery, but the vast majority do, particularly if they dislocate it more than once,” says lead researcher Dr. Robert H. Brophy of the Washington University School of Medicine.
Link to Article

BioTechniques
Sequencing’s data flood
12/01/2010
With many next generation genome sequencing systems generating terabytes of data per run, researchers are struggling with mounting storage space restrictions on their home institution’s servers and the mounting cost and manpower needed to keep pace with data output. The problem is especially daunting for larger institutions and sequencing centers, such as Washington University in St. Louis, that routinely juggle hundreds of sequencing machines running around the clock.
Link to Article

Registered Rep.
Your Client’s Kid Eyeing a Sports Scholarship?
11/30/2010
Do you know parents who think that their teenagers are going to win athletic scholarships? If parents understood the miserable odds, they might encourage their teens to focus on their schoolwork. Academic scholarships are far more plentiful and lucrative than the awards that most athletes receive. Many elite schools in the NCAA Division III, such as Washington University in St. Louis, tend to offer athletes especially generous financial packages. What’s also nice is that these Division III awards are not dependent upon students playing a sport. Athletes can decide they no longer want to play and still keep their awards.
Link to Article

Clinical Oncology News
The U.S. Clinical Trials System—Is It Losing Ground?
December 2010
If you’re an adult with cancer in the United States, the odds that you will enroll in a clinical trial are slim. And clinical trial investigators here face long waits and mountains of paperwork before a trial even opens. But outside the United States, the picture is different. A recent study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology compared patient enrollment and time to activate lung cancer trials between Washington University School of Medicine and a major academic medical centers in Italy, and, on almost every measure, the pace was faster in Italy.
Link to Article

Environmental Health News
Manganese tied to higher rates of Parkinson’s disease
11/29/2010
A recent study by Washington University in St. Louis finds that Medicare recipients who live in urban areas with high levels of manganese emissions are about 75 percent more likely to develop Parkinson’s disease compared to those in urban areas with lower manganese emissions. Though the causes of Parkinson’s disease are not established with certainty, prior studies suggest exposure to environmental toxicants – particularly metals and pesticides – may play a role in the development of the disease.
Link to Article

St. Louis Public Radio
Earmarks in Congress / Francine Prose honored by WUSTL
11/30/2010
An audio podcast features a discussion with WUSTL congressional expert Steven Smith about the earmark debate heating up in Congress, followed by a discussion with author and critic Francine Prose, winner of the 2010 Washington University International Humanities Medal.
Link to Article
See also: St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Prose’ award.

KTVI-TV
Fox 2 News at 5:00AM
Bob Costas and other sports experts and historians were at Washington University to talk about the future of sports. The panelists discussed topics ranging from performance-enhancing drugs to the potential rise of soccer in the United States.
Related news release
Link to Broadcast

News in higher education

New York Times
Room for Debate: Does It Matter Where You Go to College?
11/30/2010
Will you have a better life if you graduate from an elite school? Students and their parents think the answer is yes, and competition for slots at top-ranked (and costly) schools seems higher than ever. Having a big name college on your resume can impress employers, friends and the opposite sex. The Times columnist Gail Collins says this national fixation makes little sense. A panel of seven other academic experts offer their opinions.
Link to Article

New York Times
U.S. / Politics: AIDS Activism Growing on Campuses
12/1/2010
Roughly a quarter-century after gay men rose up to demand better access to H.I.V. medicines, a new breed of AIDS advocate is growing up on college campuses. Unlike the first generation of patient-activists, this latest crop is composed of budding public health scholars. They are mostly heterosexual.
Link to Article

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