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University News

New friendship, new discoveries:
The Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences in Arts & Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences have signed an agreement that will involve collaboration on a number of research thrusts, travel between the two institutions, and eventually student exchanges that could lead to Chinese students attaining doctorates from Washington University.

Washington University to participate in landmark research initiative to examine development of children:
Washington University School of Medicine is participating in what will be the largest study of child and human health ever conducted in the United States. The National Institutes of Health has selected the city of St. Louis as one of two sites for the National Children's Study, an extensive population-based study looking at the health and development of children by following them from before birth to adulthood. The study seeks information to prevent and treat some of the nation's most pressing health problems, including: autism, birth defects, diabetes, heart disease, and obesity.

Barnes-Jewish and Johns Hopkins hospitals teaming up:
Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Johns Hopkins Hospital are teaming up to expand the relatively new practice of kidney swapping, and in the process create a national blueprint for long-distance transplants. For several months, the two hospitals have been comparing and analyzing each other's lists of people who need kidneys and those who have offered to give them one, but whose blood type or tissue are incompatible.

Research

Researchers uncover potential cause of Alzheimer's:
Although the causes of Alzheimer's disease are not completely understood, amyloid-beta is widely considered a likely culprit — the "sticky" protein clumps into plaques thought to harm brain cells. Now School of Medicine researchers have uncovered evidence strengthening the case for another potential cause of Alzheimer's — abnormal brain cholesterol metabolism. The finding also represents the first time scientists have found a connection between early- and late-onset Alzheimer's.

The Methuselah of mammals:
Who would have thought the secret to a long life might exist in the wrinkled body of one of the world's ugliest animals? Current research may be leading seekers of the Fountain of Youth to a strange little beast — the naked mole rat. Stanton H. Braude, Ph.D., lecturer in biology in Arts & Sciences, is attracted to these small rodents that have lived to be 17 years and older in the wild. "For a rodent of this size, they are ridiculously long-lived," Braude says.

Engineers find common ground in brain and heart development:
Engineers at Washington University are finding common ground between the shaping of the brain and the heart during embryonic development. Their research could help scientists better understand the roles physics and mechanics play in a normal developing heart and the genesis of heart defects.

Features

Library unveils 'Little Black Sambo' collection:
The "One Hundred Years of Little Black Sambo" collection’s 234 items include books, puzzles, dishes, games, and figurines that were created between 1899 and 1999. "The collection is hugely important in support of the University's Children's Studies minor," said Gerald L. Early, Ph.D., the Merle Kling Professor of Modern Letters and director of the Center for the Humanities. 'Little Black Sambo' is one of the most important and problematic children's books in the English-speaking world."

After drought, ponds "Keep up with the Joneses":
An ecologist in Arts & Sciences has discovered that after ponds dry up due to drought in a region, the community of species in each pond tends to be very similar to one another in composition when the ponds revive.

Heard on Campus

“The marvelous thing about the theory of relativity is that the math is simple and each logical step is simple. You can follow each logical step, but eventually you find you have been led to conclusions that are totally preposterous, like Alice falling down the rabbit hole.”

—Alan Lightman, Adjunct Professor of Humanities, Creative Writing, and Physics at MIT and author of Einstein’s Dreams, the book selected for the 2007-2008 Freshman Reading Program

Sharing doesn't pay off for Major League Baseball:
Major League Baseball implemented revenue sharing to create incentives for ball clubs to build their teams and build their fan base, but it has had the opposite effect. According to Michael Lewis, assistant professor of marketing in the John M. Olin Business School, the amount a small market team receives from the league may be more profitable than the revenue it gets from winning a game. Lewis proposes an alternative way of distributing MLB revenues that creates incentives for ball clubs to create good teams and fill stadiums.

Kudos

Diane L. Damiano, Ph.D., research associate professor of neurology and of physical therapy, has been elected president of the American Academy of Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine.

John Ludeke of Loveland, Ohio, and Rebecca Tucker of Mobile, Alabama, seniors in the John M. Olin Business School, beat out entrants from 17 different countries to win the top prize in the Marketing Agencies Association Worldwide (MAA) Globes Awards for their marketing plan to curb childhood obesity

Susan E. Mackinnon, M.D., the Sydney M., Jr. and Robert H. Shoenberg Professor and chief of the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, has been elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.

Andrey Shaw, M.D., the Emil R. Unanue Professor of Immunobiology in the Department of Pathology and Immunology, is one of 15 physician-scientists selected nationwide to be named an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

John Watts, a sophomore in the School of Engineering from Marietta, Georgia, captured Washington University's first individual men's tennis national championship in the finals of the 2007 Division III Wilson/Intercollegiate Tennis Association National Small College Championships October 13 in Mobile, Alabama.

Six faculty from Washington University School of Medicine have been named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. They are: Stephen M. Beverley, Ph.D., the Marvin A. Brennecke Professor and head of the Department of Molecular Microbiology; Jonathan D. Gitlin, M.D., the Helene B. Roberson Professor of Pediatrics, professor of genetics, and scientific director of the Children's Discovery Institute; Eduardo A. Groisman, Ph.D., professor of molecular microbiology and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator in Molecular Microbiology; John E. Heuser, M.D., professor of cell biology and physiology; Robert P. Mecham, Ph.D., the Alumni Endowed Professor of Cell Biology and Physiology, and professor of pediatrics and of medicine; and Helen M. Piwnica-Worms, Ph.D., professor of cell biology and physiology and of medicine, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator in Cell Biology and Physiology.

About @Washington University in St. Louis

This newsletter is prepared by Special Development Communications Projects staff in Alumni and Development Programs. It is intended to provide a brief summary of what is happening at the University. Alumni, parents, and friends of the University for whom we have valid e-mail addresses automatically receive @Washington University in St. Louis.