Focus: Hidden - Missouri

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The bipartisan bill proposed by U.S. Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.), aimed at shoring up the troubled health insurance markets, has some approaches that would help fix the marketplaces, but more changes are needed, says a health economist at Washington University in St. Louis.“The Alexander-Murray approach would apply a small number of tweaks to the marketplaces meant to reduce volatility,” said Tim McBride, professor at the Brown School and expert on health reform and access to health care.

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Malnutrition problems can be traced to poor-quality diets lacking in diversity, a recent phenomenon in evolutionary history, according to a new paper from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.“Earlier diets were highly diverse and nutrient dense, in contrast to modern food systems in which monotonous diets of staple cereals and ultra-processed foods play a more prominent role,” wrote Lora Iannotti, associate professor and senior author of the paper, “Genome–nutrition Divergence: Evolving Understanding of the Malnutrition Spectrum,” published in the journal Nutrition Reviews.

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The discovery has the potential to drastically improve food safety and reduce losses caused by the contamination from the poisonous carcinogen, aflatoxin.

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No-Shave November is a movement encouraging men and women to discontinue shaving and donate the savings instead during the month of November. No-Shave November, a nonprofit, is splitting the funds raised in 2017 between three charities, one being Fight Colorectal Cancer.

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Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a pathway in the brain that seems to connect exposure to adverse experiences during early childhood with depression and problems with physical health in teens and preteens.

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President  Donald Trump’s Oct. 26 announcement that the opioid epidemic is a “public health emergency” rather than a “national emergency” goes against the understanding of most authorities, said an expert on substance use disorder treatment at Washington University in St. Louis.“Recall that the commission President Trump formed, led by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, indicated that the opioid epidemic was the equivalent of the September 11 attacks happening every three weeks,” said David Patterson Silver Wolf, associate professor at the Brown School and director of the Community-Academic Partnership on Addiction.

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In the body, cells move around to form organs during development; to heal wounds; and when they metastasize from cancerous tumors. A mechanical engineer at Washington University in St. Louis found that cells remember the properties they had in their first environment for several days after they move to another in a process called mechanical memory.

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Survey data indicate that in recent years, teens have become far less likely to abuse alcohol, nicotine and illicit drugs, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Teens also are less likely to engage in behaviors like fighting and stealing, and the researchers believe the declines in substance use and delinquency are connected.

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The article "A Blueprint to Advance Colorectal Cancer Immunotherapies” was written by leaders in oncology and immunotherapy convened by Fight Colorectal Cancer and Cancer Research Institute with the intent of furthering and guiding colorectal cancer research.

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An older Neandertal from about 50,000 years ago, who had suffered multiple injuries and other degenerations, became deaf and must have relied on the help of others to avoid prey and survive well into his 40s, indicates a new analysis published Oct. 20 in the online journal PLoS ONE.

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As Protestant Christians around the world prepare to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s 95 Theses – the document that sparked the Protestant Reformation – a historian of early modern Europe has discovered what he believes to be early versions of another set of theological theses written some three decades after Luther’s famous pronouncement but presumed lost forever.

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Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis is one of the first centers nationwide to offer a new immunotherapy that targets certain blood cancers. Newly approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for types of advanced non-Hodgkin lymphoma in adults, the CAR-T cell therapy harnesses a patient’s own immune system to fight cancer.

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The Danforth Center is applying CRISPR-Cas technology to staple food crops such as cassava and sorghum to produce planting materials with improved disease resistance, nutritional value and enhanced resilience to biotic stresses.

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An estimated 120 million people worldwide are infected with lymphatic filariasis, a parasitic, mosquito-borne disease that can cause major swelling and deformity of the legs, a condition known as elephantiasis. Health-care workers rely on leg measurements to assess the severity of the condition. However, measuring legs that are severely swollen often proves cumbersome and impractical. But now, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, working with collaborators in Sri Lanka, have shown that a portable scanning device can measure limb enlargement and disfigurement faster and more easily in patients with elephantiasis. The research tool makes it easy to obtain accurate measurements and determine whether treatments to reduce swelling are effective.

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New mothers in poor urban communities may feel the necessity to work and have a measure of food security rather than trying to find the time and ability for exclusive breastfeeding, a health issue that could be rectified with social support, researchers from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis found in a study in Haiti.

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The collaborative project brings together expertise in molecular genetics, developmental genomics and statistics to meet the food and fuel demands of a growing population.

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In the second of two high-profile articles published in recent weeks, SLU scientist Mee-Ngan F. Yap, Ph.D, continues to uncover the secrets of how ribosomes hibernate under stressful conditions.

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Scientists drilling down to the molecular roots of Alzheimer’s disease have encountered a good news/bad news scenario. The bad news is that in the early stages of the disease, high-risk TREM2 variants can hobble the immune system’s ability to protect the brain from amyloid beta. The good news, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, is that later in the disease, the absence of TREM2 protein seems to protect the brain from damage.

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One of the health care issues about which seemingly all Americans agree: Prescription drug prices have skyrocketed. And they keep going higher. How do Americans get better value for their health care dollars?One answer may be novel pricing models that more closely link a drug’s price to its value, rather than paying for volume.

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Huntington’s disease is a progressive, fatal neurodegenerative disorder that is caused by mutations in one specific gene called huntingtin (Htt). Now, for the first time, an international team of researchers has uncovered a detailed structural description of Htt.

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Congress allowed the federal Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to expire Oct. 1, leading to the demise of one of the most successful government programs ever implemented, said an expert on health economics at Washington University in St. Louis.“CHIP has led to a substantial reduction in the uninsured rate for children, to the point where children now have only a 5 percent uninsured rate — the lowest ever,” said Tim McBride, professor at the Brown School and director of the Center for Health Economics and Policy.

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A Missouri S&T professor known for both his teaching acumen and research portfolio has been named an ASM International fellow, a top honor in materials science and engineering. Dr. David Van Aken, a Curators’ Distinguished Teaching Professor of metallurgical engineering, is one of 18 inductees in the professional society’s 2017 class of fellows.

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As part of continuing efforts to expand access and opportunities for students interested in pursuing a legal education, the Washington University in St. Louis School of Law will begin accepting the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) in addition to the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT).

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This project aims to deliver stress-tolerant sorghum lines, addressing DOE's mission in the generation of renewable energy resources.

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Growing interest in explosives technology among both federal investigators and military personnel is prompting Missouri University of Science and Technology to further expand its graduate programs in the field.

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For children with Staphylococcus aureus (staph) infections, prescribing antibiotics — in addition to lancing and draining — may reduce the risk of recurrent infections, according to Washington University School of Medicine.

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A new study led by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis shows that dosing warfarin (Coumadin and others) is safer — producing fewer adverse events such as hemorrhage — when key elements of a patient’s genetic makeup are considered.

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The same countries hard hit by Zika virus – which can cause brain damage in babies infected before birth – are also home to dengue virus. Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis researchers report that they have found an antibody that protects against both viruses. These findings, in mice, could be a step towards an antibody-based preventative drug to protect fetuses from brain damage, while also protecting their mothers from both Zika and dengue disease.

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Researchers in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis are challenging the notion that environment drives the evolution of brain size. A new study was released Sept. 25 in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.

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Outdoor air pollution may increase the risk of chronic kidney disease and contribute to kidney failure, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the Veterans Affairs (VA) St. Louis Health Care System. Scientists culled national VA databases to evaluate the effects of air pollution and kidney disease on nearly 2.5 million people over a period of 8.5 years, beginning in 2004. The scientists compared VA data on kidney function to air-quality levels collected by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as well as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The study is published Sept. 21 in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

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Picture teams of smartphone-toting citizen scientists, poised to collect water samples and test for contaminants thanks to a user-friendly app that can crowdsource rapid responders to mobilize the next time a public water system is at risk. Researchers from Missouri University of Science and Technology and the University of South Florida are tapping National Science Foundation seed money set aside for “potentially transformative research” to advance the technology and hone the social mobilization efforts needed to summon trained, trusted teams of everyday water watchers.

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A new role has been identified for the major Alzheimer’s risk factor ApoE4, suggesting that targeting the protein may help treat the disease. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis show that ApoE4 exacerbates the brain damage caused by toxic tangles of a different Alzheimer’s-associated protein: tau. In the absence of ApoE, tau tangles did very little harm to brain cells.

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Working in mice, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a way to convert white fat, which stores calories, into brown fat that burns them.

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Brandon Hudgins, professional long-distance runner, GPA/Wegener’s patient and leader of VF Team Brandon, has shared his story in his recently released book, “Going the Distance: The Journey of a Vasculitis Patient on the Road to Olympic Glory.”

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Missouri S&T geologist Dr. Wan Yang has devoted his academic career to unlocking the mysteries of thePermian mass extinction more than 250 million years ago. That geological odyssey now finds him leading an 11-institution consortium that’s been collectively awarded a $2.1 million National Science Foundation research grant.

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A physics professor at Missouri University of Science and Technology will lead a four-year effort to spur research, development and commercial adoption of a new class of oxide semiconductors that outperform silicon-based transistors and could lead to new uses for flexible displays.

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More than half of the states in the U.S. now allow some type of legal marijuana use, primarily medical marijuana. But, in a survey of medical residents and deans at the nation's medical schools, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that the majority of schools are not teaching their students about medical marijuana, and the majority of students don't feel prepared to discuss the subject with patients.

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A widely circulated 1738 newspaper account of a Native American uprising against British settlers on the New England island of Nantucket – a report that turned out to be false – offers important lessons for historians today, says an assistant professor at Missouri University of Science and Technology.

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The United States earns failing grades when it comes to the number of people walking to work and school and the number of walkable communities, finds a new national report. Amy Eyler, associate professor at the Brown School, serves on the advisory panel for the National Walking and Walkable Communities Report Card, released Sept. 14.

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Civil engineering students at Saint Louis University soon will be able to design and test steel beams and concrete frames at full-scale, thanks to a recent National Science Foundation (NSF) grant.

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Private equity firms are more financially stable and pose less systemic risk to the global economy than the large investment banks that went defunct during the financial crisis of 2007-09, finds a new analysis by a financial regulation expert at Washington University in St. Louis

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Saint Louis University scientist Mee-Ngan F. Yap, Ph.D.,has uncovered the way a bacterial ribosome moves from an inactive to an active form, and how that "wake up call" is key to its survival.

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Privately insured children and those with Medicaid at the time of a cancer diagnosis experience largely similar survival trends, with slight evidence for an increased risk of cancer death in children who were uninsured at diagnosis, finds a new study from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.

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In new research, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have converted skin cells from healthy adults directly into motor neurons without going through a stem cell state. The technique makes it possible to study motor neurons of the human central nervous system in the lab. Unlike commonly studied mouse motor neurons, human motor neurons growing in the lab would be a new tool since researchers can’t take samples of these neurons from living people but can easily take skin samples.

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For more than a decade, Jr-Shin Li has sought a better way for pulse design using the similarity between spins and springs by using numerical experiments.

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Scat-sniffing research dogs are helping scientists map out a plan to save reclusive jaguars, pumas, bush dogs and other endangered carnivores in the increasingly fragmented forests of northeastern Argentina, according to a new study from Washington University in St. Louis.Published Aug. 25 in the online journal PLoS ONE, the study explores options for mitigating the impact of human encroachment on five predators who cling to survival in isolated pockets of protected forest surrounded by a mosaic of roadways, unprotected forest, plantations and pastures.

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While Zika virus causes devastating damage to the brains of developing fetuses, it one day may be an effective treatment for glioblastoma, a deadly form of brain cancer. New research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of California San Diego School of Medicine shows that the virus kills brain cancer stem cells, the kind of cells most resistant to standard treatments.