Daily Kos
New report: Nearly half of elderly will experience poverty
12/09/2010
A new study from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis sounds a huge warning bell for America’s seniors, current and future. Nearly half of all Americans between the ages of 60 and 90 will encounter at least one year of poverty or near poverty, says a recent study by Mark R. Rank, PhD, the Herbert S. Hadley Professor of Social Work at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.
Related news release:
See also: AFL-CIO blog
National Science Foundation
News From the Field: The Gene-environment Enigma
12/09/2010
Personalized medicine centers on being able to predict the risk of disease or response to a drug based on a person’s genetic makeup. But a study by scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggests that, for most common diseases, genes alone only tell part of the story. Their research shows the environment interacts with DNA in ways that are difficult to predict, even in simple organisms like single-celled yeast.
Medill Reports
Laser liposuction melts fat away–literally
12/09/2010
Samuel Klein, professor of medicine and nutritional science at Washington University in St. Louis said laser-assisted liposuction “doesn’t seem to have an effect on metabolism.” Klein does clinical research in obesity, nutrition and metabolism in humans. “Liposuction makes patients move better and be more active but does not improve blood pressure or insulin levels,” he said. Klein does not recommend patients get the procedure because it doesnot have an effect on the body other than cosmetic changes.
Health Canal
Pancreatic Cancer Treatments Improving Dramatically
12/09/2010
News of Aretha Franklin’s pancreatic cancer diagnosis took many by surprise. Overall, the news sheds light on a disease that while one of the deadliest cancers, has remarkable improved mortality rates over the past few years. Results for treating pancreatic cancer are improving yearly, says Steven Strasberg, MD, pancreatic cancer surgeon at the Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine.
Link to Article
See also: St. Louis Globe-Democrat
New America Media
Experiments, Slaves & Dr. Marion Sims’s Statue: Where Should It Stand?
12/8/2010
Dr. James Marion Sims, a surgical pioneer considered the father of modern gynecology, are revered by many, but reviled by those who know of the pain endured by female slaves on whom he operated without anesthesia in the mid-1800s: he was trying to find the cure for a painful post-birth condition known as vesico-vaginal fistula. In Sim’s defense, L. Lewis Wall, a doctor and professor at Washington University School of Medicine, says evidence suggests “that Sims’s original patients were willing participants in his surgical attempts to cure their affliction—a condition for which no other viable therapy existed at that time.”
STLtoday.com
Scientists hail finding about the eye
12/08/2010
Finding a gene that triggers the spread of eye melanoma was a discovery whose time had come, said researcher Dr. J. William Harbour, professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences at Washington University School of Medicine. The discovery demonstrates how science piggy-backs itself and leads to discoveries that wouldn’t happen without other discoveries. In this case, Washington University researchers discovered how a gene malfunctioned, causing eye melanoma to spread and become fatal.
STLtoday.com
A-B InBev CEO Carlos Brito dropping by …
12/08/2010
Anheuser-Busch InBev CEO Carlos Brito is speaking Thursday morning to an invite-only audience at Washington University’s Olin Business School. Expressly not invited: The media. Plus, no recording of any kind. Brito’s talk begins at 7:30 a.m. at Graham Chapel, part of the Olin School’s Century Club Business Series. It is not known what he’ll be talking about. Last month, the series hosted Anna Patterson, director of Google Research.
STLtoday.com
Opinion: A cure for medical readmissions
12/9/2010
Richard Liekweg, president of Barnes-Jewish Hospital and group president of BJC HealthCare, writes in response to a Dec. 5 front-page Post-Dispatch story offering a detailed look at hospital readmissions. While readmission is a complicated issue, along with our colleagues at Washington University School of Medicine, we were very disappointed with the Post-Dispatch’s inclusion of a bone-marrow transplant patient as an example of a readmission. In inappropriately positioning the unfortunate death of one of our patients as the lead for the article, the Post-Dispatch wrote, “Federal regulators now consider such readmissions a key measure of hospital quality.” This is untrue.
Link to Article
STLtoday.com
Labor’s drumbeat
12/8/2010
While St. Louis sometimes gets a bad rap for union labor adding to construction costs, an analysis by one of the city’s biggest construction customers, Washington University School of Medicine, show the true value of the St. Louis union construction industry’s investment in developing the highest-skilled work force in the country. It compared the cost of building its highly technical medical research projects over the past 11 years to similar projects completed nationwide in 2007, and found WUSM construction costs to be much less than similar projects in other cities.
KMOV-TV
At a news conference on extending the Bush-era tax cuts, President Obama said a long, political fight that carried into next year might have been good politics but it would have been a bad deal for the economy and the American people. WUSTL law professor Cheryl Block and WUSTL congressional expert Steven Smith comment on implications of the tax compromise.
KPLR 11
Demolishing The 1904 World Fair Pike
12/09/2010
They called it ‘The Pike’. It was a stretch of Lindell a mile longand as wide as imagination. It was a very popular attraction in the St.Louis Worlds Fair of 1904. There were circus elephants and cliff dwellers. Places to visit toChina, Cairo and attend a Bedouin wedding. Some suggested the pike be made permanent, but the idea was rejected by Washington University. The pike practically began at its front entrance. So that was the end of the discussion.
KTVI-TV
Fox 2 News in the Morning (3/4)
Elizabeth Edwards death reminds us of the millions of woman fighting the deadly disease. Many of us know someone who has been diagnosed with breast cancer and was successfully treated. Doctor Kate Wolin says studies breast cancer-related data at Washington University helps answer the tough questions. Her research group is currently recruiting volunteers for a study of obesity and weight loss for breast cancer survivors.
KMOV-TV
Great Day St. Louis: WUSTL’s University College hosts preview night, Dec. 9
Robert E. Wiltenburg, dean of WUSTL’s University College, and Carol Epstein, a graduate of the college, joined Great Day St. Louis hosts in studio for a discussion of University College educational opportunities, including an opportunity for the public to learn more at a Dec. 9 “preview night” at the University. “We’ve got a tremendous number of courses and programs, and degrees up to the masters, and we are working with hundreds of studentsevery semester,” Wiltenburg said.
KTVI-TV
Fox 2 News at 6P: Siteman Center breast cancer research is promising
There are better treatment being discovered for breast cancer all the time and one being tested in St. Louis seems promising. About two-thirds of all breast cancer is triggered by the hormone estrogen. Researchers from the Siteman Cancer Center at the Washington University School of Medicine are leading a national study that uses drugs to lower the level of a patient’s estrogen. which can cause tumors shrink. WUSTL medical oncologist Michael Naughton said the treatment can reduce a women’s need for more aggressive surgery.
Link to Broadcast
See also: KPLR-TV (St. Louis)
KMOX Radio (St. Louis)
Fashion incubator discussed for downtown Macy’s
12/09/2010
Hallways which once held the May Company’s headquarters, reborn as a fashion incubator. It was the leading proposal out of an “IdeaBounce” held at the Railway Exchange Building by the Skandalaris Center for Enterpreneurial Studies At Washington University.
See also: St. Louis Business Journal
News in higher education
New York Times
Education: For-Profit Colleges Draw Big Revenue From Veterans
12/12/2010
A year after payouts began on the so-called Post-9/11 G.I. Bill, it has turned into a bonanza for commercial colleges.
Link to Article
New York Times
Education: A Facebook Class of ’15 ‘Welcome’ That May Not Be
12/8/2010
High school seniors about to be admitted to college, take note: That authentic-looking Facebook page inviting you to join the university’s “welcome group” for the class of 2015
may be unauthorized.
Link to Article
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The Chronicle of Higher Education
Inside Higher Ed
University Business
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