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New research reveals differences in pH, and more, about these previously mysterious environments

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The remarkable effectiveness of mRNA vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 has generated much interest in synthetic mRNA therapeutics for treating and preventing disease. But some basic science questions have remained about whether the modified nucleotides used in the vaccines faithfully produce the protein products that they are designed to make.

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New research from the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences in Arts & Sciences indicates that fear-based messaging may result in mixed effects when it comes to public health.

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Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found a new druggable pathway that potentially could be used to help prevent Alzheimer’s dementia.

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Chenyang Lu at the McKelvey School of Engineering is evaluating the potential use of artificial intelligence to benefit patients’ health — and doctors’ well-being.

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A detailed analysis of pancreatic cancer by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has revealed details of two key transition points in the development of these tumors — the shift from normal cells to precancerous cells, and the change from precancerous to cancerous cells. Understanding these transitions will help lead to the development of novel therapies.

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A new landscape report conducted by Jake Rosenfeld, a professor of sociology at Washington University in St. Louis, and Ioana Marinescu examines the decline in worker power over the last several decades and outlines policy recommendations to rebalance the economic playing field.

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John Horn, an economics expert at Washington University in St. Louis, explains the math of inflation and why focusing on the annual rate of change, rather than month-to-month inflation changes, makes an already bad situation look worse.

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New research from the group of Joshua Yuan, professor and chair of energy, environmental and chemical engineering at Washington University in St. Louis' McKelvey School of Engineering, may soon lead to even lighter, stronger carbon fiber -- and stronger plastics -- all using what is currently a waste product.

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A study shows that cancer cells don't want to waste glucose, they just consume it too quickly. The normal pathways for transporting fuel within the cell get saturated. The discovery was made possible with metabolomics, which allowed Gary Patti and his team at Washington University in St. Louis to observe the speed at which small molecules move through cells.

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Nanoparticles (red) are taken up by immune cells (green with blue nuclei). Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown that an experimental nanoparticle-based drug therapy protects mice from sudden death due to the rupture of a major blood vessel in the abdomen, pointing the way toward a new strategy for treating deadly abdominal aortic aneurysms.

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Washington University in St. Louis researchers have developed a novel method for visualizing the proteins secreted by cells with stunning resolution, making it the James Webb version for visualizing single cell protein secretion.

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What is an artifact, anyways? Who gets to decide? An anthropologist and a philosopher dig into the meaning of data artifacts in scientific research.

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A research team from the lab of Quing Zhu, the Edwin H. Murty Professor of Engineering  in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, has combined optical coherence tomography (OCT) and machine learning to develop a colorectal cancer imaging tool that may one day improve the traditional endoscopy currently used by doctors.

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Biologists investigated the oldest known seeds from a watermelon relative, dating back 6,000 years. The researchers shared two new genomes of ancient seeds and described how Neolithic humans in Libya likely used the seeds, not the bitter flesh, from the melons.

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Researchers at the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis have developed a synthetic chemistry approach to polymerize proteins inside of engineered microbes.

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Animals will often put their lives on the line for reproduction, even if it comes at the cost of being the wrong temperature. Thermal biology co-adapts with the traits favored by sexual selection, including things like courtship displays, ornamental coloration and enlarged weapons like horns or claws.

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On Aug. 2, voters in Arizona, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri and Washington will vote in their states’ primary elections. Thirteen more states will hold primary elections through August and September.In many districts where the general election isn’t competitive, the outcomes of these primary elections likely will decide who wins in November.

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The National Science Foundation (NSF) is investing $3 million in a new graduate student training program for aspiring scientists and educators who want to explore careers in quantum science at St. Louis-area research laboratories, private companies and other facilities.Sophia Hayes, vice dean of graduate education and professor of chemistry, and Kater Murch, professor of physics, both in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St.

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New research from Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis has identified one reason why some first-time producers struggle to repeat their initial creative productions while others go on to continually produce creative works.

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A research group led by Rohit Pappu in the McKelvey School of Engineering and Anthony Hyman at the Max Planck Institute have discovered a new, relevant level of structure in cells.

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By analyzing noble gas isotope data, a scientist determined that the ancient plume mantle had a water concentration that was a factor of 4 to 250 times lower when compared with the water concentration of the upper mantle. The resulting viscosity contrast could have prevented mixing within the mantle, helping to explain certain long-standing mysteries about Earth’s formation and evolution.

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Research from the lab of Patrick Hill in psychological and brain sciences in Arts & Sciences shows a link in older adults between social interactions and having a sense of purpose.

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Camelina, also known as false flax or Gold-of-Pleasure, is an ancient oilseed crop with emerging applications in the production of sustainable, low-input biofuels. Multidisciplinary research from Washington University in St. Louis is revealing the origins and uses of camelina and may help guide decisions critical to achieving its potential as a biofuel feedstock for a greener aviation industry in the future.

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Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are leading a national study aimed at identifying patients with early-stage lung cancer who are at high risk of having the cancer return, even after surgery and chemotherapy appear to have eliminated their tumors. The research is supported by a $5.3 million grant from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

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Researchers from Washington University in St. Louis received a grant from the National Science Foundation to determine the thermal and compositional structure of Antarctica using seismic, gravity and topography data and petrological modeling.

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Yevgeniy Vorobeychik doesn’t know exactly what sentience is. Since he’s an engineer, not a philosopher, Vorobeychik can’t say what it’s like to be a bat  or a tree or a rock. He can’t quantify the importance of embodiment to consciousness. He’s not even sure that there’s an inherent problem with people reacting to an artificial intelligence in ways similar to how they react to other people.

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Experts from Washington University in St. Louis offer perspectives on the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and the impact it will have on American law, people and politics.

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While the ruling in the Maine case is unsurprising giving the court’s recent decisions around freedom of religion, some of the rhetoric around the case misrepresents the role of constitutional protections for religion in a pluralistic society, said John Inazu, expert on law and religion at Washington University in St. Louis.

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The single-year health burden associated with physical intimate partner violence in the South American country of Colombia was $90.6 million, finds a new study from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.

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Collaborative research from the labs of Daniel Giammar and Jeffrey Catalano finds a lack of available metals may be responsible for more nitrous oxide than previously thought.

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In one of the first studies to look at the association between selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) medications and brain development in young children, research from the Behavioral Research and Imaging Neurogenetics (BRAIN)Lab at Washington University in St. Louis found no association between children’s exposure to the drugs in the womb and later childhood depression.

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Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that although there have been steady increases in the number of people nationwide who die by suicide, such increases have slowed in states that have implemented Medicaid expansion.

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Federal district judges appointed by Republican presidents were found to be less likely to require mask wearing in the courtroom during the COVID-19 pandemic, finds a new study from the School of Law at Washington University in St. Louis.

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A new study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis shows that treatment with an immunity boosting protein called interleukin 7 (IL-7) after an infusion of genetically modified T cells causes the cancer-fighting CAR-T cells to grow in number and become more effective at killing tumor cells.

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A new tool can quickly and reliably identify the presence of Ebola virus in blood samples, according to a study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and colleagues at other institutions.

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Research from the lab of Ning Zhang at the McKelvey School of Engineering shows a new way to keep people safe when a hacker attacks

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Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have developed a way to attack synovial sarcoma — a rare tumor of soft tissues, such as ligaments and muscles — using an investigational drug that triggers cell death.

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Tree beta diversity — a measure of site-to-site variation in the composition of species present within a given area — matters more for ecosystem functioning than other components of biodiversity at larger scales. The finding has implications for conservation planning.

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Children who were prescribed antibiotics inappropriately were more likely to develop complications such as diarrhea and skin rashes than children who were treated according to medical guidelines, according to a new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and The Pew Charitable Trusts. This misuse of antibiotics resulted in at least $74 million in excess health-care costs in the U.S. in 2017.

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A $2.3 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant will fund Jianjun Guan and Fuzhong Zhang’s effort to develop and deliver therapeutic proteins to help treat injured limbs.

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The McKelvey School of Engineering’s Lan Yang has been selected to receive the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award. Given by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the award recognizes distinguished scientists in any discipline.

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Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of Wisconsin–Madison identified the genetic causes of three mitochondrial diseases by figuring out what dozens of poorly understood mitochondrial proteins do.

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Vaccinated people with mild breakthrough COVID-19 infections can experience debilitating, lingering symptoms that affect the heart, brain, lungs and other parts of the body, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System. However, a new study of more than 13 million veterans also found that vaccination against the virus that causes COVID-19 reduced the risk of death by 34% and the risk of getting long COVID-19 by 15%, compared with unvaccinated patients infected with the virus.

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People with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) develop tumors on nerves throughout their bodies. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have discovered that nerve cells with the mutation that causes NF1 are hyperexcitable and that suppressing this hyperactivity with the epilepsy drug lamotrigine stops tumor growth in mice.

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Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a previously unknown function for the fragile X protein, the loss of which is the leading inherited cause of intellectual disability. The researchers showed that the protein modulates how neurons in the brain’s memory center process information, a central part of learning and memory.

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Microbial communities shape our health and the health of our planet. Some are familiar to humans, like the microbes that reside in the gut, known as our microbiome. Others keep fermenting along mostly under the radar.

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Research from the lab of Calvin Lai, assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences in Arts & Sciences, suggests demographics, not bias, is the best predictor of racial discrepancy when it comes to who gets pulled over by police.