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 | THREE FACULTY ELECTED TO AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS & SCIENCES: John E. Heuser, M.D., professor of cell biology and physiology in the School of Medicine; Henry L. "Roddy" Roediger III, Ph.D., the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor in Arts & Sciences; and Norman J. Schofield, Ph.D., the William R. Taussig Professor of Political Economy in Arts & Sciences, have been elected fellows of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
EXCELLENCE IN NANOTECHNOLOGY RECOGNIZED BY NIH: Washington University has been chosen as a Program of Excellence in Nanotechnology (PEN) by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health. Karen L. Wooley, Ph.D., professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences, is principal investigator of the program, which is funded at $12.5 million for five years. The University will serve as the administrative center for the four PENs to be established.
 STEMS CELLS HOLD GREAT PROMISE: Scientists at Washington University have been conducting promising stem cell research using a process called "somatic nuclear transfer" to explore the vast possibilities for cures and treatments that lie in the use of stem cells. A bill that appeared in the Missouri legislature could have put this research in jeopardy.
Research
 POSSIBLE GENETIC LINK TO AUTISM: A research team at the School of Medicine has identified regions of DNA that may be related to risk for autism. The researchers are learning how autism is inherited. Studies of families have shown that if one child has autism there is about a 10 percent chance that a sibling will also have autism.
PROFILE OF TUMOR GENES: Oncologists aren't sure exactly why patients with the same cancer often respond differently to the same treatment, but a growing body of evidence suggests the answer lies somewhere in the genes. Now researchers at the School of Medicine have become the first to profile the activity of sets of genes involved in processing chemotherapeutic drugs.
NO LINK BETWEEN MANAGED CARE AND MORTALITY: Urban legends convey a sense that managed care can lead to death. A recent study by Gautam Gowrisankaran, Ph.D., assistant professor of economics in the John M. Olin School of Business, debunks those myths: it's not managed care that increases mortality; it's lack of drug coverage.
Features
PAIN MANAGEMENT: The experience of pain is subjective. A painful stimulus that completely disables one person may be only a minor inconvenience for another, but that’s the nature of chronic pain. Clinicians and researchers at the Washington University Pain Center use a multidisciplinary approach to make the management of chronic pain more bearable for patients.
 HUMAN MISSION TO MARS WILLING TO JUMP HURDLES: While all the excitement on Mars focuses on the two robotic rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, two Mars Exploration Rover scientists remind Mars aficionados that the rovers are part of a plan to one day put humans on the Red Planet. Bethany Ehlmann, a 2004 graduate of the University, is the lead author of a paper that asserts — with the right balance — a human mission to Mars is not only a possibility, but should become a scientific priority.
BASKETS BRING BLESSINGS: Students in the John M. Olin School of Business worked with a local entrepreneur and her business that employs basket weavers from underdeveloped countries to produce an award-winning business plan. This plan not only created a winning impact in the Olin Cup Competition, but in hundreds of lives around the world.
Heard on Campus
"...I think our fears too often overwhelm our courage to step out and try to change what is wrong and what should be changed. You have to keep your minds open, you have to welcome change, embrace new things and you must never accept what is — you must work for what can be."
—Former U.S. Representative Richard A. Gephardt in his Commencement address to graduates of the Class of 2005 on May 20.
Kudos
Helen Pfeifer, a junior majoring in comparative literature and history in Arts & Sciences, is one of 18 students nationwide to receive a 2005 Beinecke Scholarship to support graduate study in the arts, humanities, or social sciences
The American Academy of Neurology has awarded the 2005 Potamkin Prize for Research in Pick's, Alzheimer's and Related Diseases to John C. Morris, M.D., the Harvey A. and Dorismae Hacker Friedman Distinguished Professor of Neurology and director of the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (ADRC) in the School of Medicine.
Jessica L. Friedman and Matthew N. Klasen are recipients of prestigious Morris K. Udall Scholarships. Udall Scholarships are granted to those who demonstrate a commitment to fields related to the environment, or to Native American or native Alaskan students in fields related to health care and tribal public policy.
Jeffrey J. Marlow, Kathleen A. Schwarz, and Amy Y. Liu have been awarded prestigious Barry M. Goldwater Scholarships. Goldwater Scholarships have been awarded to 320 U.S. undergraduate sophomores and juniors for the 2005-2006 academic year. Goldwater Scholars were selected on the basis of academic merit from a field of 1,091 mathematics, science, and engineering students nominated by the faculties of colleges and universities.
Rebecca Messbarger, Ph.D., associate professor of Italian, and Mark G. Pegg, Ph.D., associate professor of history, are two of only 10 recipients nationwide of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation's highly selective New Directions Fellowships. Inaugurated in 2002, the New Directions Fellowships are for faculty members in the humanities or humanistic social sciences who earned doctorates 5-15 years ago and who wish to acquire systematic training in topics outside their own disciplines.
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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.
Copyright 2005, Washington University in St. Louis
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