Medicine & Health

As universities around the world strive to cultivate diverse and equitable communities, a recent study from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis highlights the necessity of recognizing age as a fundamental dimension of diversity.

A sense of well-being can have a profound impact on health, especially for the aging brain. Higher levels of well-being have been robustly associated with a lower risk for future dementia, according to WashU psychology researchers who contributed to this year’s World Happiness Report.

Two early-career Washington University faculty members have been awarded a prestigious Sloan Research Fellowship: psychologist Zachariah Reagh, in Arts & Sciences, and neuroscientist Gaia Tavoni, at the School of Medicine.

Emily Willroth, an assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University, has received the SAGE Early Career Trajectory Award from the Society for Social and Personality Psychology.

Rajendra Apte, MD, PhD, the Paul A. Cibis Distinguished Professor in the John F. Hardesty, MD, Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences at the School of Medicine, has received a $300,000 Research to Prevent Blindness/American Macular Degeneration Foundation Catalyst Award.

A new study from the School of Medicine identifies a key feedback loop between the brain and the fat tissue that governs aging in mice. The research suggests that the loop’s gradual deterioration contributes to health problems typical of aging.

Alumnus Tej Seelamsetty applies his joint interests in business and technology to a massive health-care problem.

The National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has awarded graduate student Lizzie Tilden an F30 fellowship that supports physician-scientists in training.  

“The Golden Bachelor,” this fall on ABC, has the potential to help normalize the desire for love at any age, with a few caveats, said a Washington University expert on productive engagement of older adults.

Some have raised concerns about the age of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, who are 80 and 77 respectively, and who are both vying to be elected president in 2024. Performance and accomplishments matter, but old age should not, per se, said three experts on aging at Washington University in St. Louis.