Antibodies effective against delta variant

School of Medicine researchers have found that the delta variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 is largely unable to evade antibodies elicited by vaccination. The findings help explain why vaccinated people have been at low risk of getting seriously ill with COVID-19.

Sodium channel variations may drive drug efficacy

The university’s Jonathan Silva and Jeanne Nerbonne led a team that found that two drugs sometimes prescribed to treat arrhythmias affect heart atria and ventricles differently depending on the molecular composition of the sodium channels expressed.

A brief history of the cabbage butterfly’s evolving tastes

Biologists in Arts & Sciences used statistical methods to trace the path of Pieridae family butterflies as they diversified and their plant hosts fought back, over and over again. The study also finds that butterflies often regain hosts they haven’t used for millions of years.

WashU Expert: Afghanistan crisis was predictable

Without international pressure, the power-sharing agreement between Kabul and the Taliban was doomed, according to research by William Nomikos in Arts & Sciences. But the political cost of continued occupation was too great.

Notables

Kevin Moeller, professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences, won the 2021 Jaroslav Heyrovsky Prize for Molecular Electrochemistry from the International Society of Electrochemistry.

Notables

Noor Riaz, MD, a pediatric hospitalist, has been named the 2021-23 Carol B. and Jerome T. Loeb Teaching Fellow at the School of Medicine. Riaz will focus on creating a curriculum to help educate doctors in training about social determinants of health.

Notables

Three Arts & Sciences faculty members — David Cunningham, Hedwig Lee and Geoff Ward — have co-edited a special issue of The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.