Washington University

At 9 a.m., Friday, Jan. 30, contractors will close one lane of northbound Kingshighway Boulevard, just north of Children’s Place and extending past Parkview Place, to begin construction of a tower crane. The lane will reopen at 3 p.m. the same day.

Washington University, St. Louis Children’s Hospital and the March of Dimes are launching the March of Dimes Prematurity Research Center at Washington University in St. Louis.

The commute is about to get a little easier for employees and patients heading to Washington University Medical Center. After more than a year of construction activity, the improved Interstate 64/Highway 40 interchange at Tower Grove Avenue is scheduled to open the afternoon of Friday, Aug. 29.

As part of a multi-institutional $20 million effort, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis will conduct several studies, including one that uses medical imaging on plants to see what’s broken or about to break inside (pictured). Four university researchers will receive funding from the National Science Foundation to support work aimed at helping Missouri plants and crops adapt to climate variability.

Construction of a new medical records customer-service office will begin the evening of Monday, April 21, in the Center for Advanced Medicine (CAM) lobby. The office — part of Barnes-Jewish Hospital — is relocating to CAM from the first floor of Shoenberg Pavilion as part of the Campus Renewal Project.

IDEA Labs will host its second annual Demo Day April 18. Medical and engineering students from the Medical and Danforth campuses will demonstrate prototypes for inventions they created to solve a variety of health-care problems.

On March 28, renowned researchers from around the globe will gather in St. Louis to discuss maternal and child health and infections in animals that threaten humans. These topics will be highlighted at the second annual conference of the Washington University Center for Global Health and Infectious Disease.

The Washington University Medical Center is undergoing the initial phases of a transformation that primarily will feature expansions of St. Louis Children’s Hospital, Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Siteman Cancer Center. It also will include more space for Washington University Physicians clinics and diagnostics and new facilities for women and infants, oncology and surgical services. If you’re curious about the expansion, renderings will be on display and staff will be on hand to answer questions March 10 and 11 at two campus locations.

The 27th annual Martin Luther King Jr. commemoration at Washington University in St. Louis will include a number of events on campus, all free and open to the public. Michel Martin, host of Tell Me More, National Public Radio’s one-hour daily news and talk show, will deliver the School of Medicine’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Lecture Monday, Jan. 20.

The obesity epidemic and how science may be able to impact it is the focus of the upcoming annual conference of the Institute for Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis. Graham Colditz, MD, DrPH, deputy director of the Institute for Public Health and a disease prevention expert at Siteman Cancer Center, will deliver the keynote address.