Newsroom Stories

For nearly a decade, doctors have used implanted electronic stimulators to treat severe depression in people who don’t respond to standard antidepressant treatments. Now, preliminary brain scan studies conducted by School of Medicine researchers are revealing that vagus nerve stimulation brings about changes in brain metabolism weeks or even months before patients begin to feel better.

The Next Generation Science Standards have been out for a month now. How are they being received? Michael Wysession, who helped lead the effort to define the national standards, says there haven’t been any major surprises, in part because there is strong economic motivation to bring American students up to the level of the scientifically literate students they will be compete with in the international job marker.

Over spring break, Room 37 in the Brown School’s Goldfarb Hall was transformed. For the last eight weeks of the semester, Brown School students in 15 courses took part in an experiment in pedagogy that brings teaching — and learning — into a new era. This isn’t your parents’ lecture hall. Say hello to the wired world of interactive instruction — or active learning.

Arts & Sciences senior Nisha K. Chatterjee is this year’s winner of the Rabbi Ferdinand M. Isserman Prize. The annual award recognizes a student who has made a significant contribution in service and leadership to ecumenical or interfaith activities on the Washington University in St. Louis campus.

Three Washington University in St. Louis scientists are among the 84 members and 21 foreign associates elected to the National Academy of Sciences this year. Election to the academy is considered one of the highest honors that can be accorded a U.S. scientist or engineer.

Scientists’ picture of how a gene strongly linked to Alzheimer’s disease harms the brain may have to be revised, researchers at the School of Medicine have found. Washington University’s David M. Holtzman, MD, says leading researchers recently agreed that targeting this gene is a promising approach for gaining a better understanding of and improving treatments for the disease.

Washington University in St. Louis will award six honorary degrees during the university’s 152nd Commencement May 17. The ceremony begins at 8:30 a.m. in Brookings Quadrangle. The recipients are Commencement speaker Cory A. Booker, Marilyn Fox, Martin L. Mathews, Juhani Pallasmaa, Peter Rosen, MD, and Howard Wood.

WUSTL faculty, staff and students rode from the Danforth Campus to Forest Park for the first “bike-in” movie April 25, as part of the 2013 Earth Week celebration.

In spite of a sluggish job market for today’s graduates, there are a few specific things both parents and graduates can do to move forward during this time of waiting.

School of Medicine researchers have discovered why breast cancer patients with dense breasts are more likely than others to develop aggressive tumors that spread. The finding opens the door to drug treatments that prevent metastasis. Shown are collagen fibers at the boundary of a tumor. Fibers that tend to be perpendicular to the tumor’s surface indicate a poor prognosis.