Jill Biden, wife of former Vice President Joe Biden and a lifelong educator, will deliver the keynote address of “She Leads,” a new two-day event featuring female leaders in technology, finance, public service, medicine and other fields.

The Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Fellowship for Women in Graduate Study at Washington University in St. Louis is hosting the event Oct. 24 and 25. Registration for “She Leads” is open to the public and includes panels, workshops, a networking lunch, cocktail hour and dinner at the Ritz Carlton, St. Louis. 

Brittany Packnett, a 2006 alumna, co-host of the award-winning podcast “Pod Save The People,” and co-founder of Campaign Zero, a policy platform to end police violence, will kick off “She Leads” with a talk at 4 p.m. Oct. 24 in Graham Chapel on the Danforth Campus. Washington University senior and activist Kayla Reed will join her. The event is free and open to all. 

Biden will deliver her remarks at a dinner Oct. 25 after a full day of programming with 72 leaders from across the nation, including  Katie Burlingame (MS ‘12), a NASA flight controller; Nicole Adler Kaplan (BA 92), founding partner of Silent Spring Ventures, a private equity firm that invests in ventures that remediate waste and contamination; Yamiche Alcindor, White House correspondent for “PBS NewsHour”; and Abby Cohen (BS ‘13), co-founder and co-CEO of Sparo, a digital health company. Sessions cover a range of issues from securing venture capital to mentoring the next generation of female leaders to negotiating effectively. 

“By bringing together so many interesting women to share their experiences and successes, we aim to inspire not only members of the Washington University community but the broader community as a whole,”  said Diana Hill Mitchell, director of the Olin Fellowship. “My hope is that the participants leave knowing they can have an impact in their respective fields and communities, too.”

In the past, the Olin Fellowship has hosted small conferences primarily for its members. But last year, it hosted Tarana Burke, founder of the “Me Too” movement, at a standing-room-only Assembly Series lecture. This year, in celebration of  its 45^th year, Olin leadership  revamped the conference to more closely align with the women of the fellowship — bold and impactful.  More than 600 Olin Fellows, alumnae and St. Louisans are expected to attend “She Leads” events.

“We really want to expand and strengthen the networks of all women,” Mitchell said. “As a member of the St. Louis community, we at Washington University don’t want to be insular.” 

The Olin Fellowship is a highly selective and unique program for exceptional female graduate students. Incoming fellows receive an annual stipend of $33,000 and a $600 travel award. Fellows represent all schools and are selected for both their academic excellence and their commitment to making a difference in their fields. 

The fellowship has an interesting history. In 1838, Capt. Benjamin Godfrey built the Monticello Female Seminary, one of only four institutions of higher education for women in the nation. Godfrey, a father of eight daughters, once said, “If you educate a man, you educate an individual; educate a woman and you educate a whole family.” The school, then called Monticello College, closed in 1971, and its buildings are now part of Lewis and Clark Community College in Godfrey, Ill. The proceeds of the college’s sale established the Monticello College Foundation, which in turn established the Olin Fellowship 45 years ago.

“Although, of course, much has changed for women since Monticello’s founding, women still lag behind men in earnings and opportunities in many fields,”  Mitchell said. “That’s why it’s important to have programs like the Olin Fellowship, where women can work together, to network and to support one anther. ‘She Leads is an extension of that legacy that started so long ago.”

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The demand for residential solar energy is growing in the St. Louis area. According to the Solar Energy Industries Association, enough solar has been installed in Missouri to power more than 26,000 homes, and prices for installation have fallen 32% over the last five years.

Now, there’s a new program for homeowners interested in making the switch to renewable energy: Grow Solar St. Louis. The group-purchasing program for residential solar is offered by the Missouri Botanical Garden and Washington University in partnership with the Midwest Renewable Energy Association, with support from Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Grow Solar St. Louis is designed to bring down the cost of solar by pooling individual residents’ buying power; providing free education to get people over the learning curve; and pre-selecting a high-quality solar company through a competitive bid process to save homeowners time. StraightUp Solar, founded by alumnus Dane Glueck and based in St. Louis County, was selected for the program’s initial phase.

As more households sign up to install solar through Grow Solar St. Louis, all participants benefit from reduced costs. The program already surpassed the first benchmark of 50 kilowatts (kW) of collective solar capacity, resulting in a 1% price reduction for all participants. The program appears to be on track to surpass the second price reduction milestone of 150 kW.

“Renewable energy will play a critical role in achieving the ambitious carbon-reduction targets that are needed to address climate change,” said Phil Valko, the university’s assistant vice chancellor for sustainability. “As the university increases its own solar portfolio, we are thrilled to partner with the Missouri Botanical Garden and the Midwest Renewable Energy Association to develop creative solutions that make it easier for homeowners to do the same.”

Until early November, Grow Solar St. Louis is offering “Solar Power Hours” to teach the basics of solar energy, its financial implications and how the Grow Solar St. Louis program works. Washington University is hosting an upcoming “Solar Power Hour” from 6-7 p.m. Oct. 23 in Schnuck Pavilion on the Danforth Campus. Community members, faculty, staff and students are welcome.

“Missouri Botanical Garden and Washington University in St. Louis are both committed to advancing sustainability in the region, so this is a win-win local partnership,” said Glenda Abney, director of the garden’s Earthways Center. “We’ve been watching for the best time to bring a solar program to the area, and that time is now, with reduced purchase costs, utility rebates and tax credits. The program that Midwest Renewable Energy Association has is so effective; we are happy to partner to bring it to St. Louis, providing the opportunity for local homeowners to engage in solar power for their own homes.”

Grow Solar St. Louis is available to residents throughout St. Louis city and county. A parallel program, Grow Solar Metro East, is available to Illinois residents.

Read more about the “Solar Power Hour” at WashU.

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For Jazmin Garcia, it seems like only yesterday she was shooting a second of video every day for her first days on campus.

“So much has happened since then, but I still remember the feeling of being a first-year student,” Garcia said. “I’m glad I can look on those memories.”

Below, Garcia and the other students who have participated in our one-second-a-day video project in 2017 and 2018 share how life has changed since they shot their videos.

Junior Jazmin Garcia

Garcia arrived here with plans to ultimately be a doctor. That goal has not changed, but her  major has.   

“At first I was PNP (philosophy-neuroscience-psychology) and then I took a philosophy class and decided that’s probably not the best thing for me,” Garcia recalled. “Then it was psychology. But then I took the global health class with Professor (Peter) Benson (associate professor of sociocultural anthropology in Arts & Sciences), and everything clicked,” Garcia said. “I liked how the global health explored medical topics in a more people-based way. It’s not just about learning facts that have been proven but thinking hard about all of the questions and uncertainties in medicine.” 

Watch Garcia’s video here.

Junior Astrella Sjarfi

Sjarfi moved off campus this year with a group of friends. The upside — a kitchen and plenty of privacy. But there is a downside, too. 

“No more waking up 10 minutes before class,” said Sjarfi, who is studying economics in Arts & Sciences and is considering a second major in political science. “There’s so many little things, like arranging who is cleaning when and planning what you’re going to eat for the whole week. But it’s been really fun exploring different grocery stores across the city. Living with my really close friends has been one of my best college experiences.”

Sjarfi also is now a leader for the Women’s Ultimate Frisbee Club, which she joined on a whim at her first-year activities fair. She also recently joined Thyrsus, the student  experimental theater group.

“I always wanted to do that but was afraid too, but I decided it was time for me to take part and I really like it,” Sjarfi said.

Watch Sjarfi’s video here.

Junior Tim Tague

Tague, a member of the Bears football and baseball teams, is enjoying his role as a team leader. 

“Looking back to my time as a freshman, there were guys who were intimidating and guys who I looked up to and made me feel comfortable and that I belonged,” said Tague, who is majoring in systems engineering at the McKelvey School of Engineering and minoring in the business of sports at Olin Business School. “I’m trying to be that guy — someone who is approachable and can be there for freshmen with questions.”

Watch Tague’s video here.

Sophomore Ella Homan

Homan took a leave of absence from her studies and plans to return to her studies next semester. In her time away, she volunteered, worked as a camp counselor and took classes at Harris-Stowe State University in urban studies. 

“I was very prepared for the academic work because of my time in the College Prep Program, but I hadn’t done the self-checking that is necessary in college,” said Homan, who now wants to focus her studies on community development in St. Louis. “You have to take care of yourself. So I’ve been learning a lot about myself and what matters to me and what doesn’t. I feel lucky that I had so much support here to have the time and space to figure it out.” 

Watch Holman’s video here. 

Sophomore Marissa Kalkar

Sophomore Marissa Kalkar will not be a doctor. And she’s good with that.

“After taking chem, I knew  medical school wouldn’t be for me,” said Kalkar, who is also a forward on the women’s soccer team. “But it wasn’t upsetting. It actually was freeing. I would have been disappointed if I didn’t try. Now I’m really excited about studying computer science. I love the problem-solving aspect of it. The feeling of getting your code to work is the best feeling.”

Watch Kalkar’s video here.

The post What’s new with past first-year vloggers? appeared first on The Source.

For the third straight year, The Source has asked first-year students at Washington University in St. Louis to capture a second of video every day as they begin their college careers. 

Here, Connor Seger, of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, Elizabeth Joseph, of the Beyond Boundaries interdisciplinary program, and Roberto Cabrera-Castro, of Olin Business School, capture the sights and sounds of  log rolling at the Sumers Rec Center, St. Louis Cardinals baseball at Busch Stadium and sunsets in Forest Park. 

Connor Seger

What are your first impressions of the Sam Fox School? 

I love how collaborative and open the atmosphere here is. For instance, my drawing teacher (Ed Kinsella) focuses on the fundamentals, but he doesn’t want us to lose our own natural drawing style. I feel that is different from other schools that focus on making everything look realistic. On the first day he said to us, “’Feel free to mess up and learn’ and ‘photorealism isn’t everything.’”  I wrote those words in my sketchbook.  

Why are you drawn to design? 

I really like the idea of using design to solve problems — whether it’s communication design, graphic design or fashion design. Right now, I’m really into the idea of sustainable fashion. People dismiss the big impact the fashion industry has on climate change. They think, “Oh, it’s just clothes.” But I believe that anything can be designed better, whether that means more efficiently or more sustainably. I almost view it as a math or science problem in my art. 

What is the hardest part about college? 

It can be hard to prioritize. My readings are always the thing that get pushed back. In my mind I’m always like, ‘Should I do my reading or would I rather go outside on this beautiful day and draw?” 

Elizabeth Joseph

Why did you decide to apply to WashU?

When I toured it, I really liked it because, in all honesty, I picked up a strong nerdy vibe. I was like, ‘Ah. These are my people.’

How did you find out about Beyond Boundaries, the new interdisciplinary program for first-year students?

When I toured, they mentioned a “fifth school” for interdisciplinary studies, and that really interested me. One of my favorite parts of the program has been “Eat, Drink, Learn,” where we give three-slide presentations. I talked about why “Spy Kids” is  art, and someone presented on how “Ratatouille” is gay-coded and someone else presented a theory on how North Dakota doesn’t exist. Ultimately, the program is about looking at your life in ways that aren’t so rigid. 

What do you like best about college? 

The most fun comes in the unplanned, unstructured moments, like when we had a surprise birthday party for a guy on the floor. It was cool because we had only been here for a month, but here we all were together celebrating this new friend.

What I didn’t expect was the amount of alone time I have. One of the things you hear about college is that everyone is around each other all of the time. But that’s not the case. Not that that is bad. But it has reminded me that you still have to be pro-active in making friendships. 

Roberto Cabrera-Castro

How did you learn about WashU? 

My mother, my aunt and my uncle all have studied here, and my uncle was one of the first Rodriguez Scholars. So I applied to be one, too. But I still wasn’t convinced  to come to WashU until I came here for finalists weekend. Meeting the other Rod’s gave me a sense of the family in the program and the support system I would have here. 

Has it been hard to adjust to life away from home? 

My roommate is also a Rod, and our suite mates are the perfect fit. We get meals together and hang out together. When I got here, I just felt immediately at home. But then there are times when I’m walking up the stairs to my room and I’m like, “Where am I? Am I in college?” 

Why did you choose Olin Business School? 

In high school, I took my first finance class. I was like, “Wow, I love this.” I’m a math guy, and Olin really seemed like a place where I could build my knowledge. So far, it’s been a lot of work. They’ve thrown us into the content, but I feel like the professors and TAs are a great help. And every week we have different experts and professors talk to us about different aspects of business. I came here planning to study finance or accounting, but I’ve really liked being exposed to different fields and am open to going into another area.  

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Parking & Transportation Services at Washington University in St. Louis is reminding the campus community of the latest changes to Metro bus routes; parking during high-volume events such as Parents and Family Weekend; and vehicle storage options in advance of the holidays.

Metro updates

As a reminder, the Metro ReImagined program resulted in changes that affect the routes and schedules of the #1 Gold, #2 Red and #5 Green line buses as of Sept. 30.

• #1 Gold changes: This route now ends at the Mallinckrodt bus plaza. On weekdays, the Gold line runs every 30 minutes during the day. It runs every hour during evenings and weekends. View the new route here.
• #2 Red changes: This route no longer serves Eastgate, Westgate, Skinker south of Wydown or the Richmond Heights and Maplewood-Manchester Transit Centers. The Red line runs every 30 minutes on weekdays and every hour on weekends. View the new route here.
• #5 Green changes: This route is now served by a Metro bus instead of a Metro Call-A-Ride vehicle and runs every 30 minutes daily. View the new route here.

High-traffic events

Next month, Parents and Family Weekend will take place Nov. 1-3.

“We do not anticipate any significant disruptions to permit holders in any zone during Parents and Family Weekend,” said Marc Carlton, interim director of Parking & Transportation Services and director of business process improvement for the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Operations and Technology Transfer.

Guests are encouraged to park in designated visitor parking spaces on campus, which are available in the Danforth University Center (DUC), East End, Millbrook and Snow Way garages as well as the top floor of the Wallace garage and the first level of the West Campus garage.

Visitors also can park in yellow spaces from 5 p.m. Friday through Sunday. A permit is always required for red parking spaces.

Additional upcoming events include:

• Century Club: On Nov. 14, Zone 3 permit holders may see a higher volume of traffic.
• Recognition Ceremony: On Dec. 14, traffic is expected to be higher than usual campuswide; however, because this event falls on a Saturday, disruption to permit holders should be minimal.

For the latest upcoming events, visit the team’s High Traffic Events page.

Vehicle storage

With the holidays approaching, the Parking and Transportation team also wants to remind the university community about the vehicle storage policy, which does not allow commuters to leave vehicles unattended on campus for more than 72 consecutive hours without prior written consent.

“There are times when we need to accommodate a large event, make emergency repairs or coordinate construction in various areas around campus,” Carlton said. “In these instances, we strive to provide 72-hour notice to ensure permit holders have ample time to move their vehicles. Those who leave their vehicles unattended longer than 72 hours may not be aware of the pending closure and could be towed.”

Those who need to leave their vehicles for longer periods may contact Parking &  Transportation Services to learn about their options.

During fall, winter and spring breaks, the team offers vehicle storage to current permit holders for a small processing fee. After filling out an authorization form, permit holders will be asked to display a storage placard in the vehicle, which must be parked in the appropriate location assigned by Parking & Transportation.

Vehicle storage is not available during summer break, but the team can provide a list of facilities that will accommodate vehicles during the summer. Learn more on the vehicle storage page.

For additional information about parking and transportation, visit parking.wustl.edu.

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Global modeling of the atmosphere’s chemistry requires immense computational resources to study how particles form and are processed. A team of researchers, led by Randall Martin at Washington University in St. Louis, plans to improve a high-performance model so that it is more accessible and easier to use by researchers worldwide.

Martin, a professor of energy, environmental and chemical engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering, will work to improve the GEOS-Chem model with a two-year, $1.2 million grant from NASA. He will collaborate with researchers from Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center to improve the functionality of the high-performance model, known as GCHP.

“GCHP has immense potential to rapidly improve scientific understanding,” said Martin, whose research centers on aerosols. “We want to make it easy for people to use GCHP to enable a better understanding of air quality and climate.”

The model provides researchers with an opportunity to compare simulations with observations and to probe a variety of processes, Martin said.

“Do they agree or disagree?” he asked. “Disagreements are interesting because they imply that there’s a process to better understand and an opportunity to develop its representation. Agreement provides confidence in the simulation to support further analyses of alternative scenarios. For example, what if emissions change? What if the climate changes? How might atmospheric composition change? What are the implications for air quality?”

Specifically, Martin and the team will improve functionality and capabilities of GCHP to simulate atmospheric composition; improve performance and portability so that the model can be used more easily worldwide; and create a better archive of meteorological data that drives GCHP.

Martin’s research characterizes atmospheric composition to inform effective policies surrounding major environmental and public health challenges ranging from air quality to climate change.

His research lies at the interface of satellite remote sensing and global modeling, with applications that include population exposure for health studies, top-down constraints on emissions, and analysis of processes that affect atmospheric composition.

He serves as co-model scientist for GEOS-Chem; leads the SPARTAN global fine particulate matter network to evaluate and enhance satellite-based estimates of fine particulate matter; and is on multiple science teams for satellite instruments.

Data from his lab has been used for the OECD Regional Well-Being Index; World Health Organization estimates of global mortality due to fine particulate matter; the Global Burden of Disease Project to examine the risk factors affecting global public health; and a wide range of additional health studies.

The McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis focuses intellectual efforts through a new convergence paradigm and builds on strengths, particularly as applied to medicine and health, energy and environment, entrepreneurship and security. With 99 tenured/tenure-track and 38 additional full-time faculty, 1,387 undergraduate students, 1,448 graduate students and 21,000 alumni, we are working to leverage our partnerships with academic and industry partners — across disciplines and across the world — to contribute to solving the greatest global challenges of the 21st century.

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Tens of trillions of microbes, including bacteria, viruses, parasites and fungi, live in and on the human body. Their microbial genomes, collectively known as the microbiome, contain at least 100 times more genes than our human genome. Such microbial genes provide us with capabilities that we have not evolved on our own, including the ability to process otherwise indigestible components of our diets, such as fibers, and produce essential nutrients. Our microbial communities have profound and myriad beneficial effects on our health, but when perturbed, they influence the risk of developing conditions, including malnutrition, obesity, diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease and possibly neurologic disorders. These communities also serve as a first line of defense from dangerous pathogens that represent global health threats.

A longtime leader in microbiome research, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis plans to expand research into the microbiome with a new mouse facility that will further enable researchers to understand how microbes influence health and disease. The facility – funded with an $8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), along with $2.8 million from the School of Medicine – will provide a place to breed and house “germ-free” mice with no microbiomes of their own. By introducing members of microbial communities from humans into such mice and studying the effects, researchers from across the School of Medicine will be able to investigate the role of the microbiome in human health and disease. This includes developing and applying new molecular and imaging methods for characterizing the responses of various organ systems to the presence or absence of human microbial communities and their members.

This work builds on the research of Jeffrey I. Gordon, the Dr. Robert J. Glaser Distinguished University Professor and director of the Center for Genome Sciences and System Biology.

“Jeff pioneered the use of germ-free mice to study the human microbiome – its composition, functions and effects on human biology,” said Jennifer K. Lodge, the university’s vice chancellor for research. “Thanks to the NIH’s investment, this facility will expand our capacity for faculty and students to broaden, accelerate and advance this interdisciplinary area of research. Jeff has been called the father of the microbiome because his discoveries on the importance of the gut microbiome revolutionized and expanded our understanding of human biology. More than 50 investigators at the School of Medicine will benefit from a facility to study the microbiome. I am excited that we will be able to provide this resource to our investigators and their students.”

Named the Gnotobiotic Research, Education and Transgenic (GREaT) facility, it will be constructed within an existing building on the Medical Campus. The term “gnotobiotic” comes from the Greek words “gnosis” (known) and “biosis” (life) and refers to animals whose microbial content is defined and can be controlled. Germ-free mice, which have no microbiomes at all, are one kind of gnotobiotic mice. They can be reared in specialized isolators without being exposed to any microbes in the environment. The ability to introduce collections of human microbes into these mice at different times after birth allows researchers to investigate how microbial communities and their members interact with each other and with host cells and organs.

“This new facility will enable Washington University investigators to conduct a wide array of innovative studies, including analyzing the effects of individual microbes, human or mouse microbial communities, and their metabolic products,” said Megan Baldridge, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of medicine and of molecular microbiology. She studies how the microbiome interacts with the immune system to control infectious diseases, and was named a 2018 Pew Scholar by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

“The use of germ-free mice permits highly controlled studies of the human microbiome that simply can’t be achieved through any other means,” she added. “Once established, this facility will enhance research in fundamental areas of science, including microbial ecology, microbial genome evolution, microbial metabolism and synthetic biology as well as catalyze work designed to develop a 21^st century medicine cabinet that includes microbiome-directed therapeutics.”

Washington University School of Medicine’s 1,500 faculty physicians also are the medical staff of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals. The School of Medicine is a leader in medical research, teaching and patient care, ranking among the top 10 medical schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Through its affiliations with Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals, the School of Medicine is linked to BJC HealthCare.

Originally published by the School of Medicine

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Using an analysis of thousands of words spoken by corporate executives, Washington University in St. Louis’ Jared Jennings and three other researchers have created a new way to help lenders make better loan decisions.

Their study uses qualitative information to assess a business’ credit risk. “It’s all based on language,” said Jennings, associate professor of accounting at Olin Business School. “Our measure captures unique attributes of credit risk that are not readily identified by existing measures.”

As it turns out, the words company officials use in quarterly earnings calls with investors and analysts can be, well, telling.

“Our results suggest that our measure improves the ability to predict future bankruptcies, future interest spreads and future credit rating downgrades,” Jennings said.

Evidence also suggests their measure more consistently captures a borrower’s credit risk than other methods.

They call their measure the “text-based credit score,” or “TCR Score.” The TCR Score could be particularly useful when other market-based measures of a firm’s credit risk aren’t available, Jennings said. “Our analyses suggest that only about 22% of firms with long-term debt are assigned credit ratings by leading rating agencies.”

Their working paper, “Measuring Credit Risk Using Qualitative Disclosure,” is under revision for the Review of Accounting Studies.

‘A tighter link’

Traditional credit risk measures mostly use numerical, or quantitative, data.

Jennings and his co-authors set out to measure the spoken word. They used three machine-learning methods to create a measure of credit risk based on information disclosed in 132,060 conference call transcripts from 2003-2016.

Jennings and co-authors John Donovan of the University of Notre Dame; Kevin Koharki of Purdue University; and Joshua Lee of the University of Georgia grouped into categories hundreds of top words, phrases and topics that their machine-learning methods identified.

One method identified language associated with liquidity, debt and performance. The other two identified phrases associated with performance, industry and accounting.

“By connecting the language identified by the machine-learning methods to economic intuition, we are able to draw a tighter link between the construct of credit risk and our proxy,” the researchers wrote.

The study adds to the growing body of research using machine-learning methods to gather information from conference calls and 10-Ks to explain accruals, future cash flows, fraud and other outcomes.

It also adds to research that examines other useful signals extracted from conference calls, such as vocal and video cues, and tone. (See “When Upbeat Language Belies Downbeat Results,” about research by Xiumin Martin, professor of accounting at Olin and Guofu Zhou, professor of finance.)

“We expect that practitioners and academics could use our measure to supplement existing credit risk models to obtain a more comprehensive and independent estimate of credit risk,” Jennings and co-researchers wrote.

The post Words matter: Earnings call language can foreshadow credit risk appeared first on The Source.

The underdeveloped lungs and immune systems of premature babies put them at high risk of potentially deadly pneumonia. Now, a study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has found, in mice, that an inhaled drug promotes the development of lung immunity and reduces the risk of pneumonia.

The findings, published Aug. 14 in Science Advances, suggest that the drug – an inhalable form of a normal immune protein called GM-CSF – could reduce the risk of life-threatening lung infections common among premature infants. Senior author S. Celeste Morley, MD, PhD, an associate professor of pediatrics, and of pathology and immunology, discussed the study.

Why did you start exploring whether GM-CSF could prevent pneumonia?

Immune cells called macrophages are critical for controlling lung infections, and they appear in the lungs in the first day or two after birth. We know that newborn mice naturally experience a burst of GM-CSF in their lungs in the first 24 to 48 hours after birth that triggers the development of specialized lung macrophages. We don’t know for sure whether the same thing happens in babies. But we think that full-term babies also get a burst of GM-CSF, and preemies might not. If so, the macrophages in the lungs of premature infants would not develop normally, which could explain why preemies are at such high risk of pneumonia.

What happened when you gave mice GM-CSF?

We used mice with a genetic defect that prevents their lung macrophages from maturing normally. We couldn’t study premature mice – they’re just too small to work with. But full-term newborn mice with this genetic defect are very susceptible to bacterial infection and pneumonia, like human preemies, so we used them instead. We gave these newborn mice GM-CSF intranasally for the first 24 hours after birth. The number of lung macrophages increased immediately, and since they are very long-lived cells, the mice were protected from pneumonia even into adulthood.

GM-CSF has been tried before as a way to protect preemies from pneumonia. Why didn’t it work then, and why do you think it will work now?

People have tried giving premature infants GM-CSF intravenously or subcutaneously. When you give GM-CSF this way, it mobilizes neutrophils, a different immune cell that is also very important for fighting off infections in general, but is not the crucial immune cell type in the lungs. So it wasn’t a bad idea, but the clinical trials have been disappointing. GM-CSF injections did not lower the risk of pneumonia. What we did differently is we administered the drug to the lungs directly, by inhalation, which triggered the development of lung macrophages instead of neutrophils. And then we saw long-lasting protection against pneumonia.

Could inhaled GM-CSF help protect premature infants from pneumonia?

I hope so. The key point is that it has to be given within the first day after birth. These specialized macrophages are only made in the first couple of days after birth. After that, the maturation window is over and you’ve missed your chance to intervene. And you have to give it through inhalation so it gets directly to the lungs. GM-CSF is an FDA-approved drug, and it has been used safely in previous clinical trials in premature infants. We still have some questions to answer, but I hope we can take this into clinical trials soon.

Todd EM, Ramani R, Szasz TP, Morley SC. Inhaled GM-CSF in neonatal mice provides durable protection against bacterial pneumonia. Science Advances. Aug. 14, 2019. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aax3387

This study was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), grant numbers R01 AI104732 and R21 AI142723; the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, grant number P30-AR048335; the Hope Center Transgenic Vectors Core; and the Speed Congenics Facility of the Rheumatic Diseases Core Center.

Washington University School of Medicine’s 1,500 faculty physicians also are the medical staff of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals. The School of Medicine is a leader in medical research, teaching and patient care, ranking among the top 10 medical schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Through its affiliations with Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals, the School of Medicine is linked to BJC HealthCare.

Originally published by the School of Medicine

The post Drug reduces risk of pneumonia in newborn mice appeared first on The Source.

Bronwen Konecky, assistant professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, whose research explores long-term changes in tropical climate and ecosystems from the geologic past to the 21st century, was named Oct. 15 a member of the 2019 class of Packard Fellows for Science and Engineering.

Each of the 22 Packard fellows — among the nation’s top early-career scientists and engineers — will receive a five-year $875,000 grant to pursue research.

Konecky’s work focuses on ancient and modern environments to provide a geologic perspective on present-day climate change.

“The relationship between tropical rainfall and global climate depends on complex interactions between the oceans, atmosphere and land surfaces,” Konecky said. “Our group integrates field, lab and climate model experiments in order to disentangle these hydroclimatic processes on scales from molecular to global, from minutes to millennia.”

“I am thrilled to congratulate Bronwen on this impressive recognition, and to welcome her as the 10th Packard Fellow within the faculty of Arts & Sciences,” said Barbara Schaal, dean of the faculty of Arts & Sciences and the Mary-Dell Chilton Distinguished Professor. “Her demonstrated leadership extends beyond her significant work toward understanding how climate change has impacted, and continues to impact, our planet. She is also a valued mentor among her peers in the Earth sciences and for the undergraduate and graduate students she teaches.”

“Konecky’s recognition as a 2019 Packard Fellow is a well-deserved honor. Her research plays an important role in uncovering discoveries that have a transformative impact on the way we address climate change,” said Chancellor Andrew D. Martin. “Her work emulates our WashU values to improve lives both locally and globally.”

Konecky is the 11th Washington University faculty member — 10th in Arts & Sciences — to receive the Packard Fellowship.

Since 1988, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation program has supported what organizers call the “blue-sky thinking of scientists and engineers.” Implicit in the program is the belief that the fellows’ research over time will lead to new discoveries that improve people’s lives and enhance our understanding of the universe.

Konecky also was recently honored with the American Geophysical Union’s Nanne Weber Early Career Award, recognizing her outstanding research impact, interdisciplinary work, leadership and mentoring.

Wetter or drier?

Konecky’s work relies on atomic-scale differences in the mass of the hydrogen and oxygen that make up water molecules as a kind of persistent fingerprint that records where water travels and what happens to it before it falls as rain.

Climate researchers around the world use this same type of isotopic data to examine water. They rely on modern-day rainfall monitoring along with geologic reconstructions that help them to estimate the quantity and properties of rain that fell in the past.

As part of her research on the modern-day tropical water cycle, Konecky established several projects to measure water isotope variations at poorly studied sites in eastern and southern Africa as well as southeast Asia. Last year, she started a new project to characterize the influence of Congo rainforest moisture on precipitation in east Africa, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Rainwater collectors — custom-built in Konecky’s laboratory at Washington University — are installed at five locations across western Uganda.

Konecky is also working on reconstructions of past climate and cultural shifts in the Peruvian Andes. This project was funded by the National Geographic Society and the International Center for Energy, Environment and Sustainability (InCEES) at Washington University.

Konecky leads or participates in several large earth-system modeling and multi-proxy data comparison projects. She is the founder and lead coordinator of the PAGES Iso2k Project, in which she organizes the efforts of scientists from around the world to assemble a database of isotope-based paleoclimate records from the past 2,000 years.

The database is being used to investigate variability in atmospheric circulation and relationships to temperature change. She also is an investigator for NSF-funded projects simulating past climates with the Community Earth System Model, including studies of the Indo-Pacific Walker Circulation and other tropical climate dynamics.

Konecky earned her B.A. in environmental sciences at Barnard College, Columbia University in 2005, and her PhD in geological sciences at Brown University in 2013. She spent time in between earning degrees to work as an environmental research coordinator for the Millennium Villages Project in Africa. She has held two postdoctoral research positions: one at the Georgia Tech, and a fellowship through NSF Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences at Oregon State University and the University of Colorado Boulder.

Konecky has taught and conducted research at Washington University since 2018.

The complete list of 2019 Packard Fellows for Science and Engineering is available here.

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Sexual assault and misconduct remain difficult problems on college campuses across the United States, according to a newly released survey of students from a sampling of the nation’s colleges and universities, including Washington University in St. Louis. The most recent Association of American Universities (AAU) campus climate survey, released today, shows that incidences of sexual assault and misconduct continue to be all too common, and that universities still have significant work to do to address these serious issues.

Conducted this spring, the survey collected data from some 182,000 undergraduate, graduate and professional students at 33 colleges and universities. It is the second such survey to be administered by the AAU in recent years, providing an important update to the findings of the 2015 survey, in which Washington University also participated. A total of 2,369 Washington University students completed the 2019 survey, a response rate of 16.4 percent.

The results of the new survey, by and large, indicate that sexual assault and misconduct remain particularly challenging problems at our nation’s universities, and that there is significant room for improvement in how institutions address these issues and provide support to students. A summary of national and Washington University-specific findings is available on the Title IX website. The full national report, which also covers sexual harassment, intimate partner violence and stalking, is available on the AAU website.

At Washington University, the survey results provide valuable insight into how the university compares against the national findings, as well as the 2015 survey results. Among the high-level indicators:

• 13 percent of all Washington University students who responded to the survey indicated that they have experienced penetration or sexual touching involving physical force, inability to consent or stop what was happening, or attempted penetration using physical force while attending the university. This percentage is the same as the national average reported in this year’s AAU survey. Comparatively, in 2015, 10.9 percent of all Washington University students reported similar contact.
• This figure is highest among female undergraduate and graduate students, of whom 27 percent and 9.3 percent, respectively, reported this type of contact. These percentages are higher than indicated by the 2015 survey, when 22.6 percent and 8.5 percent, respectively, responded similarly. This year’s results for Washington University are within approximately 1 percentage point of the 2019 national findings, which indicate that 25.9 percent and 9.6 percent of female undergraduate and graduate students, respectively, reported similar experiences.

Among these troubling statistics, the survey also indicated a number of positive indicators, specifically in the area of bystander behavior. Nearly one-third of Washington University students who responded indicated they had witnessed someone making inappropriate sexual comments, sharing sexual images or otherwise acting in a sexual way that they believed was making others feel uncomfortable or offended. Of these students, 69.8 percent took some type of action, ranging from checking in with the person who seemed impacted by the behavior to directly intervening in the situation. Of the 17 percent of students who indicated they had witnessed a situation that they believed could have led to a sexual assault, 84 percent took some type of action. (See a summary of additional survey findings.)

“I appreciate the work of the Title IX Office, the Relationship and Sexual Violence Prevention (RSVP) Center and other campus partners to support students. We will continue to work collaboratively with students to raise awareness of these issues and to effect change. Even with the extensive effort we continue to put against preventing and addressing sexual assault and misconduct on our campus, it’s clear that we still have a great deal of work to do,” said Lori White, vice chancellor for student affairs. “While it is somewhat heartening to know that students have expressed some confidence in our commitment to taking these issues seriously, we will continue to work at gaining more of their trust and demonstrating that we are here to support them as they navigate these difficult topics. This is work that is never completely done. It is a challenge that requires ongoing, sustained and robust effort to overcome, and my commitment is to keep at it.”

During the 2018-19 academic year, the university embarked on a significant effort to make improvements to create a more timely and efficient Title IX process and to provide more support for students who become involved in these cases. The changes were based on findings and recommendations of a working group that was convened in response to student feedback and concerns raised by the Title Mine student organization during the spring 2018 semester. The changes included:

• increased staffing, including a new full-time investigator, education specialist and administrative assistant in the Title IX Office; the addition of a full-time administrative coordinator, two full-time counselors and two full-time sexual relationship and violence prevention specialists in the RSVP Center; and one full-time counselor in the Habif Health and Wellness Center;
• additional training and education for staff in the Title IX Office, RSVP Center, Habif Health and Wellness Center, and Student Affairs, as well as members of University Sexual Assault Investigation Board (USAIB) panels;
• creation of a Title IX advisory committee, comprising students, faculty and staff; and
• increased transparency through enhancements to the Title IX website to make case numbers and outcomes more readily available, as well as information about the Title IX process.

“It is always jarring to hear from our students that they have experienced unwanted sexual contact or violence,” Chancellor Andrew D. Martin said. “As difficult as it is to face these truths, it is incredibly important for us to learn as much as we can about the problem so we can continue in our pursuit of meaningful solutions. I’m grateful to the AAU for administering the campus climate survey, which provides a window into these challenging issues, nationwide and here at Washington University. We remain firmly committed to working, together with our students as we listen and learn from them, to address sexual assault and misconduct on our campuses.”

Sexual assault and relationship violence prevention programs currently in place at Washington University fall into three main areas — education and prevention; student support; and law enforcement and disciplinary processes. Learn more by reading a summary of sexual violence prevention efforts at Washington University and by visiting the RSVP Center website.

To learn more about the AAU survey, visit the AAU website.

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Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have received a $3.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support an open-source database aimed at boosting personalized approaches to cancer treatment. The database is designed to help doctors match cancer mutations — found in patients’ tumors — with drugs that target such genetic errors.

The online resource was started by computational biology specialists Obi L. Griffith, associate professor of medicine and of genetics, and Malachi Griffith, assistant professor of medicine and of genetics. Both are research members of the McDonnell Genome Institute and Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine.

The database’s name is CIViC, which stands for Clinical Interpretations of Variants in Cancer. According to its founders, it is the only entirely open-source online resource for querying tumor mutations — like a Wikipedia for cancer genomics. Comparing CIViC to Wikipedia — an online encyclopedia maintained by volunteers — the Griffiths, who are twin brothers, designed a system that allows anyone to create an account and contribute information to the database. Experts in the field serve as editors, curating data that is incorporated into the system. It is also free for anyone to use.

“Maintaining up-to-date and comprehensive information about the significance of genetic mutations in cancer — and what such mutations may mean for patients — is a major bottleneck to improving cancer care,” said Obi Griffith. “CIViC is the kind of tool that can help relieve that bottleneck. With that in mind, it’s important to make this data open and accessible to anyone who needs it. This research is funded by public taxpayer dollars, and it should be accessible to and benefit the general public.

“Often, doctors have some genetic information about a patient’s tumor, but it’s not clear what that might mean for treatment,” he added. “Searching the scientific literature is time-consuming, and important data still could be missed. The purpose of CIViC is to streamline and automate that process. It’s a resource that can help clinicians determine the specific type of cancer a patient has, the prognosis and, in some cases, identify a drug that has the potential to help the patient. This new grant will help us continue to develop CIViC into an even better resource to make this type of personalized medicine more widely available.”

Genetic variants that might be significant for a cancer patient include those that: help predict how a patient might respond to a drug; differentiate between different types of cancer that might appear to be the same tumor type; indicate how aggressive the cancer is likely to be; and signal how likely a person is to develop a certain type of cancer in the future.

CIViC is one of several similar resources attempting to make information about significant cancer genomic variants more accessible to doctors who treat such patients. That it is fully open access, including the source code that underlies how it works, makes CIViC unique. According to the researchers, CIViC has more than 3,000 monthly visitors and 80,000 unique users to date, primarily from cancer research institutes and hospitals. These users are from 163 countries, including the U.S., China, Japan, Germany, India, the United Kingdom and South Korea. Some top institutions that make use of CIViC include the NIH, Stanford University, the University of California at San Francisco, the Mayo Clinic, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Genentech, M.D. Anderson and Baylor College of Medicine. Many of these users have set up their clinical work stations to automatically receive information from CIViC so the tool is constantly updated and can be incorporated into doctors’ workflows when treating patients.

“We receive millions of hits to the CIViC application from outside clients, including academic institutions and companies that use CIViC data in their own tools,” Malachi Griffith said. “We are trying to work with other similar genomic data resources to develop standards for interpreting all this information and to make sure we are including as much available information as possible — including new discoveries — without duplicating too many of our efforts.”

The Griffiths also are active in international efforts to collaborate with researchers doing similar work and combine their systems so such resources are available to all cancer patients, wherever they may receive treatment. The researchers helped form the Variant Interpretation for Cancer Consortium, an initiative that helps guide efforts by the Global Alliance for Genomics & Health to develop data-sharing standards, so that doctors one day may make queries in one place but have access to multiple cancer Wikipedia-like databases, including CIViC, that are all governed by the same standard guidelines. The goal is to ensure doctors have access to the most information at the highest levels of evidence for clinical decision-making.

Washington University School of Medicine’s 1,500 faculty physicians also are the medical staff of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals. The School of Medicine is a leader in medical research, teaching and patient care, ranking among the top 10 medical schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Through its affiliations with Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals, the School of Medicine is linked to BJC HealthCare.

Originally published by the School of Medicine

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Messy tangles of a protein called tau can be found in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease and some other neurodegenerative diseases. In Alzheimer’s, the tangles coalesce just before tissue damage becomes visible in brain scans and people start to become forgetful and confused.

Now, a new study has found that brain immune cells called microglia — which are activated as tau tangles accumulate — form the crucial link between protein clumping and brain damage. The research, published Oct. 10 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, shows that eliminating such cells sharply reduces tau-linked brain damage in the mice – and suggests that suppressing such cells might prevent or delay the onset of dementia in people.

“Right now many people are trying to develop new therapies for Alzheimer’s disease, because the ones we have are simply not effective,” said senior author David Holtzman, MD, the Andrew B. and Gretchen P. Jones Professor and head of the Department of Neurology. “If we could find a drug that specifically deactivates the microglia just at the beginning of the neurodegeneration phase of the disease, it would absolutely be worth evaluating in people.”

Under ordinary circumstances, tau contributes to the normal, healthy functioning of brain neurons. In some people, though, it collects into toxic tangles that are a hallmark of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a progressive brain disease often diagnosed in football players and boxers who have sustained repeated blows to the head. Holtzman and colleagues previously had shown that microglia limit the development of a harmful form of tau. But the researchers also suspected that microglial cells could be a double-edged sword. Later in the course of the disease, once the tau tangles have formed, the cells’ attempts to attack the tangles might harm nearby neurons and contribute to neurodegeneration.

To understand the role of microglial cells in tau-driven neurodegeneration, Holtzman, first author and postdoctoral researcher Yang Shi and colleagues studied genetically modified mice that carry a mutant form of human tau that easily clumps together. Typically, such mice start developing tau tangles at around 6 months of age and exhibiting signs of neurological damage by 9 months.

Then, the researchers turned their attention to the gene APOE. Everyone carries some version of APOE, but people who carry the APOE4 variant have up to 12 times the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease compared with those who carry lower-risk variants. The researchers genetically modified the mice to carry the human APOE4 variant or no APOE gene. Holtzman, Shi and colleagues previously had shown that APOE4 amplifies the toxic effects of tau on neurons.

For three months, starting when the mice were 6 months of age, the researchers fed some mice a compound to deplete microglia in their brains. Other mice were given a placebo for comparison.

The brains of mice with tau tangles and the high-risk genetic variant were severely shrunken and damaged by 9½ months of age — as long as microglia were also present. If microglia had been eliminated by the compound, the mice’s brains looked essentially normal and healthy with less evidence of harmful forms of tau despite the presence of the risky form of APOE.

Further, mice with microglia and mutant human tau but no APOE also had minimal brain damage and fewer signs of damaging tau tangles. Additional experiments showed that microglia need APOE to become activated. Microglia that have not been activated do not destroy brain tissue or promote the development of harmful forms of tau, the researchers said.

“Microglia drive neurodegeneration, probably through inflammation-induced neuronal death,” Shi said. “But even if that’s the case, if you don’t have microglia, or you have microglia but they can’t be activated, harmful forms of tau do not progress to an advanced stage, and you don’t get neurological damage.”

The findings indicate that microglia are the linchpin of the neurodegenerative process – and an appealing target of efforts to prevent cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s disease, chronic traumatic encephalopathy and other neurodegenerative diseases. The compound Holtzman and Shi used in this study has side effects that make it a poor option for drug development, but it could point the way to other compounds more narrowly tailored to microglia.

“If you could target microglia in some specific way and prevent them from causing damage, I think that would be a really important, strategic, novel way to develop a treatment,” Holtzman said.

Shi Y, Manis M, Long J, Wang K, Sullivan PM, Remolina J, Hoyle R, Holtzman DM. Microglia drive APOE-dependent neurodegeneration in a tauopathy mouse model. Journal of Experimental Medicine. Oct. 10, 2019. DOI: 10.1084/jem.20190980

This study is supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), grant numbers NS090934 and AG047644; JPB Foundation; and the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund.

Washington University School of Medicine’s 1,500 faculty physicians also are the medical staff of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals. The School of Medicine is a leader in medical research, teaching and patient care, ranking among the top 10 medical schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Through its affiliations with Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals, the School of Medicine is linked to BJC HealthCare.

Originally published by the School of Medicine

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The National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has awarded $7.6 million to Washington University in St. Louis to create a research center that will develop ways to implement proven cancer-control interventions among disadvantaged rural and urban populations in 82 counties in Missouri and central and southern Illinois.

The Washington University Implementation Science Center for Cancer Control will seek to eliminate cancer disparities with rapid-cycle studies that put findings into practice quickly. It will be led by a team of researchers affiliated with the Brown School on the Danforth Campus and with Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine.

“Siteman Cancer Center serves some of the most disadvantaged populations of patients in the United States,” said Timothy J. Eberlein, MD, Siteman’s director and the Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Distinguished Professor and head of the Department of Surgery at Washington University. “This grant will allow us to further engage with our communities that we serve, with the goal of implementing effective interventions to reduce cancer disparities. This is a huge opportunity, it is very exciting, and it is unique that Siteman will be able to have such a tremendous impact on our current and future patients – throughout the region.”

The aims of the center are to:

• Advance the field of implementation science in cancer control by conducting innovative and impactful research.
• Expand an exceptional, diverse team of implementation science investigators and stakeholders, including clinical and public health leaders.
• Organize and integrate center components to facilitate transdisciplinary team science.
• Develop an implementation laboratory (known as the Innovation Incubator) to engage community partners, thus serving as a conduit for rapid and impactful research.
• Address cancer disparities by making it as easy as possible for disadvantaged populations to access, use and benefit from evidence-based interventions.

Rural Missouri and Illinois residents are a particular focus of the center because they have cancer mortality rates that are significantly higher than those in urban populations. Risk factors such as smoking and obesity are consistently higher for rural than for urban populations. Cancer mortality disparities in rural areas also extend across racial, ethnic and socioeconomic groups. Among black and white men with 12 or fewer years of education, cancer mortality rates are almost three times higher than those of male college graduates for all cancers combined.

The region includes highly impoverished areas, all within three hours of St. Louis. In southeastern Missouri, five counties have the highest poverty rates and some of the highest cancer rates in the country. Several Illinois counties are at the bottom of the county health rankings in Illinois and nationally. Many are areas where more regular screening for breast and colon cancer, for example, could have profound impact.

The center also will mentor and advance the work of junior scholars engaged in two pilot studies focused on implementation science. One will identify the extent to which evidence-based interventions are put into practice in rural settings and the roles of local health departments and other potential partners. The second pilot project will provide financial guidance for cancer patients, helping them to understand the costs of care, select health insurance and reduce financial distress.

“This new center will strengthen collaborations between the Brown School, the School of Medicine and Siteman Cancer Center,” said Mary McKay, PhD, the Neidorff Family and Centene Corporation Dean of the Brown School. “It will be a model for transdisciplinary, team science. Most importantly, we think the center will make a real difference in reducing the risk of cancer and improve health equity for disadvantaged populations in an 82-county area of Missouri and Illinois.”

The center will be co-led by Ross C. Brownson, PhD, and Graham Colditz, MD, DrPH. Brownson is the Steven H. and Susan U. Lipstein Professor of Public Health at the Brown School and the School of Medicine. He leads the Prevention Research Center in St. Louis and is a co-director for prevention and control at Siteman Cancer Center. Colditz is the Niess-Gain Professor and director of the Division of Public Health Sciences in the Department of Surgery at the School of Medicine. He is associate director for prevention and control at Siteman and has led the Program for the Elimination of Cancer Disparities at Siteman since 2006.

The grant is intended to benefit residents of St. Louis city, 39 Missouri counties and 42 Illinois counties. The Missouri counties are: Audrain, Bollinger, Boone, Butler, Callaway, Cape Girardeau, Carter, Cole, Crawford, Dent, Dunklin, Franklin, Gasconade, Iron, Jefferson, Lincoln, Madison, Maries, Marion, Mississippi, Montgomery, New Madrid, Osage, Pemiscot, Perry, Phelps, Pike, Ralls, Reynolds, Ripley, Scott, St. Charles, St. Francois, St. Louis, Ste. Genevieve, Stoddard, Warren, Washington and Wayne. The Illinois counties are: Adams, Alexander, Bond, Calhoun, Christian, Clay, Clinton, Edwards, Effingham, Fayette, Franklin, Gallatin, Greene, Hamilton, Hardin, Jackson, Jefferson, Jersey, Johnson, Macon, Macoupin, Madison, Marion, Massac, Monroe, Montgomery, Morgan, Perry, Pike, Pope, Pulaski, Randolph, St. Clair, Saline, Sangamon, Scott, Shelby, Union, Washington, Wayne, White and Williamson. (Image: Siteman Cancer Center)

The new center is aligned with Washington University’s commitment to the St. Louis region, as emphasized by Chancellor Andrew D. Martin at his inauguration Oct. 3.

The center’s scientific and administrative elements also are aligned with the NIH’s Cancer Moonshot initiative, funded with grant 1 P50 CA244431-01.

Washington University School of Medicine’s 1,500 faculty physicians also are the medical staff of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals. The School of Medicine is a leader in medical research, teaching and patient care, ranking among the top 10 medical schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Through its affiliations with Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals, the School of Medicine is linked to BJC HealthCare.

The Brown School at Washington University is one of the top-ranked schools of social work in the nation, focused on evidence-based scholarship and impact. It endeavors to create positive change through path-breaking research and educational excellence in social work and public health, with deep ties to the local and global communities it serves. Faculty and staff at the Brown School are committed to creating new knowledge to counter the effects of systemic oppression and racism, in order to build a more just and equitable world.

Siteman Cancer Center, ranked among the top cancer treatment centers by U.S. News & World Report, also is one of only a few cancer centers to receive the highest rating of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) – “exceptional.” Comprising the cancer research, prevention and treatment programs of Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Siteman treats adults at six locations and partners with St. Louis Children’s Hospital in the treatment of pediatric patients, through Siteman Kids at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. Siteman is Missouri and southern Illinois’ only NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center and only member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. Through the Siteman Cancer Network, Siteman Cancer Center works with regional medical centers to improve the health and well-being of people and communities by expanding access to cancer prevention and control strategies, clinical studies and genomic and genetic testing, all aimed at reducing the burden of cancer.

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The McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis recently welcomed the first cohort of students funded by a prestigious new grant from the China Scholarship Council, the Chinese Ministry of Education’s branch that oversees international exchange and collaboration. The award establishes an “International Cooperative Program for Innovative Talents” (ICPIT) and makes possible a dual doctoral program with Xi’an Jiaotong University (XJTU), a McDonnell International Scholars Academy partner.

The three-year, renewable program will enable up to six doctoral students per year to pursue research on projects in the areas of life sciences, energy and informatics involving collaborations between the McKelvey School of Engineering and Xi’an Jiaotong University. These students also will meet the requirements for PhD degrees at both institutions.

This program builds upon a strong foundation of collaboration between the two universities, including partnership not only through the McDonnell Academy but also XJTU’s University Alliance of the Silk Road.

Last summer, Kurt Dirks, vice chancellor for international affairs, led a Washington University delegation to Xi’an. There, they met with partners, including XJTU Vice President Guang Xi, to solidify the project proposal. Together, the two universities presented it to the CSC’s leadership in Beijing.

“We are excited to welcome this inaugural cohort to Washington University,” Dirks said. “This program is a terrific example of how our strong international relationships can lead to important joint study opportunities and research projects.

The three students from XJTU arrived at Washington University in time for the fall semester. These students will participate in classes at both universities, and they will participate in research that could include genetics and mechanobiology of disease and development. The students have advisers at both institutions.

“This grant allows us to bring together world-class resources in engineering, medicine and life sciences to train future global leaders,” said Guy Genin, the Harold and Kathleen Faught Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the McKelvey School of Engineering and McDonnell Academy ambassador to XJTU. “I’m excited to combine the resources of one of China’s leading centers on mechanobiology, the Bioinspired Engineering and Biomechanics Center at XJTU, with those of the Center for Engineering MechanoBiology (CEMB) at WashU and the McKelvey School of Engineering.”

CEMB is one of the U.S. National Science Foundation’s 14 “science and technology centers” across all areas of science. This joint project between Washington University and the University of Pennsylvania, along with several satellite sites, is charged with the mission of developing research and education platforms at the intersection of physics and biology.

“Awards through the highly competitive ICPIT program establish partnerships to develop future scientific leaders in areas of critical scientific importance, and we are thrilled to support this important new collaboration between Washington University and Xi’an Jiaotong,” said XJTU International Vice President Xi Guang. “We are very pleased that the CSC launched the ICPIT program in 2014 to enable premier Chinese universities to connect with other top research institutes worldwide for the purpose of developing world-class interdisciplinary educational programs.”

“This is an exciting opportunity to harness first-rate students and faculty to address critical topics,” said Feng Xu, director of the Bioinspired Engineering and Biomechanics Center at XJTU and co-principal investigator with Genin on the grant. “We are grateful to the leadership at XJTU and WashU for laying the groundwork for this opportunity.”

Recruitment for the 2020 cohort of up to six students is now in progress. McKelvey School of Engineering faculty interested in mentoring a graduate student through the program are invited to contact Teresa Sarai, assistant dean for international relations at the McKelvey School of Engineering.

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Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have been awarded a grant from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to train young scientists to recognize, investigate and work toward correcting disparities in access to mental health care in the United States and sub-Saharan Africa.

Although the global burden of mental illness is enormous, health-care professionals devoted to mental health account for a very small percentage of the global health workforce. About 45% of the world’s population live in countries with less than one psychiatrist per 100,000 people. Consequently, many people suffering from depression, substance use disorders and psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia don’t get the help they need.

Led by Patricia Cavazos-Rehg, associate professor of psychiatry at the School of Medicine, and Fred M. Ssewamala, the William E. Gordon Distinguished Professor at the university’s Brown School, the training program will recruit predoctoral and postdoctoral students from around the U.S., with a particular focus on trainees from groups that are underrepresented in biomedical, behavioral and social sciences research.

“We are seeking scientists at the stage of their careers where they are getting ready to solidify their research interests,” said Cavazos-Rehg. “We want to pique their interest in health disparities research and especially in global mental health disparities, where there are such great needs. Our hope is that they will consider focusing on those important issues as their careers progress.”

The intensive 12-week training program will be held in the summer, beginning with four weeks of coursework at Washington University, along with field research in the St. Louis area. The students then will travel to sites in eight sub-Saharan African countries to conduct more field work and research into health disparities, with a particular focus on mental health.

“We are excited about this new opportunity,” said Ssewamala. “Communities across St. Louis and sub-Saharan Africa struggle to access quality mental health services, and this program has great potential for bidirectional learning. Our trainees will be committed to research in low-resource settings and, in working at their research sites, will learn from their mentors in Africa while applying the skills learned during their coursework in St. Louis.”

After the training next summer, one postdoctoral student will be chosen for a nine-month fellowship at Washington University. The training program is funded by a $1.3 million grant from the NIH. The program is accepting applications through 5 p.m. Dec. 1.

For more information, contact the program’s training coordinator, Suzie Fragale at fragale@wustl.edu.

Washington University School of Medicine’s 1,500 faculty physicians also are the medical staff of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals. The School of Medicine is a leader in medical research, teaching and patient care, ranking among the top 10 medical schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Through its affiliations with Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals, the School of Medicine is linked to BJC HealthCare.

Originally published by the School of Medicine

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When WiFi was designed, it was intended for high-speed data communications. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) set the standards for communications — that’s the 802.11 protocol, a familiar number on many wireless routers.

According to the protocol, once a device is unable to send at least one megabit per second (Mbps), it is “out of range.” Even if it were physically possible to send, say, a half megabit per second, the protocol won’t allow it.

Electrical and systems engineer and computer scientist Neal Patwari of the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis has been working with a group using sensors to continuously collect indoor air quality data from the homes of volunteers, in a project sponsored by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB).

But when researchers stopped receiving data, there wasn’t a way to determine whether a sensor had been unplugged, or if something was interfering with the WiFi signal. They just needed to send a small ping, a tiny bit of data, but that was the problem — the protocol wouldn’t allow it.

“We were trying to figure out, can we send lower rate data from a WiFi device even though it’s not part of the protocol, using the same hardware?” said Patwari, professor of electrical and systems engineering and of computer science and engineering.

Indeed, they found a way.

Patwari and the team presented the results of their research Oct. 22 at ACM MobiCom 2019, the 25th International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking.

For their study regarding how indoor air quality affected asthma rates, the researchers needed lots of data from lots of homes with asthmatic children over a long period of time.

Research participants agreed to have air quality sensors in their homes. The sensors transmitted data to the researchers via WiFi, and were expected to do so for a year.

“This is a problem,” Patwari said. “If you’ve ever had to set up and maintain a wireless network, you know that it requires some work every once in a while if something goes wrong.”

Something will always go wrong, and, after lots of communication back and forth with participants to fix things, researchers were worried the challenges would cause participants to drop out.

Patwari experienced this frustration himself, when he put a sensor in his bedroom, across the house from his wireless router. His own student, Philip Lundrigan, also an author of the study, called when the link went down. When he went to check on the router, he had to move a basket of laundry out of the way.

Suddenly, the connection to the sensor was restored.

“It was the laundry basket,” he said, “and it was clean laundry!”

It wasn’t that the laundry had formed an impenetrable wall and the WiFi signal was stopped dead in its tracks. Rather, since the sensor was far away from the router, any small perturbation kicked the data transfer rate below 1 Mbps — the lowest transfer rate allowed by the protocol. So communication was cut off.

The situation the researchers were trying to address didn’t require that much data, though. They were just trying to find a way to figure out if the connection had been terminated, or if the sensor had been unplugged. For this purpose, instead of treating the transmitter as something that sent data, Patwari decided to consider it as something that sent noise.

Modern homes are awash in wireless noise — from computers to televisions to stereos to cell phones — the signals are everywhere. The team, led by Phil Lundrigan, assistant professor at Brigham Young University, thought they could use this to their advantage. They programmed into the WiFi sensor a series of 1s and 0s, essentially turning the signal on and off in a specific pattern. The router was able to distinguish this pattern from the surrounding wireless noise.

So even if the sensor’s data wasn’t being received, the router could pick out that pattern in the ambient noise and know that the sensor was still transmitting something.

The process isn’t entirely straightforward; some noise is louder than other noise, so the team had to devise a way to quiet some of the loudest noise in order to spot the sensor’s hidden message. Nearby signals — say, the television next to the router — were canceled out. By analyzing just a few weaker signals, it becomes much easier to pick out the pattern being sent by the sensor.

“If the access point hears this code, it says, ‘OK, I know the sensor is still alive and trying to reach me, it’s just out of range,’” Patwari said. “It’s basically sending one bit of information that says it’s alive.”

The team, which also included Sneha K. Kasera, professor at the University of Utah, eventually showed that the code could be transmitted even further than the edge of the WiFi data range — twice as far away, in fact.

“Even when the laundry basket is in the way and the link can’t send data at the 1 Mbps rate, it can still send this code,” Patwari said, “and your router then knows that the sensor is alive and transmitting. The researcher can rest easy knowing that the sensor is still collecting data, and eventually they’ll get their air quality data.”

This is just the beginning for the new innovation. It might be able to make so-called “long range” wireless protocols even longer range, according to Lundrigan, or be used on top of other wireless technology such as bluetooth or cellular.

“We can send and receive data regardless of what WiFi is doing,” Lundrigan said. “All we need is the ability to transmit energy and then receive noise measurements.”

The McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis focuses intellectual efforts through a new convergence paradigm and builds on strengths, particularly as applied to medicine and health, energy and environment, entrepreneurship and security. With 99 tenured/tenure-track and 38 additional full-time faculty, 1,387 undergraduate students, 1,448 graduate students and 21,000 alumni, we are working to leverage our partnerships with academic and industry partners — across disciplines and across the world — to contribute to solving the greatest global challenges of the 21st century.

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The Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded new funding to boost research on dark matter, the mysterious substance that makes up an astounding 85% of the matter in the universe.

One theory suggests that dark matter is made of axions: very light, invisible particles streaming through the cosmos. Physicists from Washington University in St. Louis are part of a collaborative research team searching for these dark matter particles with mass less than the mass of a proton.

“Our part of the project is to use a novel property of superconducting quantum-limited detectors known as JPAs to ‘squeeze the vacuum’ in a multi-cavity axion detector,” said James H. Buckley, professor of physics in Arts & Sciences.

“Using this trick — essentially playing with the uncertainty principle — we can suppress the quantum noise to make more sensitive measurements of the incredibly weak axion signals,” he said.

The Axion Dark Matter eXperiment (ADMX) is led by the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and hosted at the University of Washington in Seattle. Buckley is co-principal investigator for the Washington University portion of the effort, along with Kater Murch, associate professor of physics. Erik Henriksen, assistant professor of physics, is also a collaborator.

Over the past 90 years, scientists have found increasing evidence for dark matter, first in the motion of stars and galaxies and more recently in the pattern of temperature fluctuations from the universe’s earliest moments, still seen today. While evidence for dark matter is strong, the nature of dark matter has remained a mystery.

Read more about the DOE’s grants for Basic Research Needs for Dark Matter New Initiatives on the DOE website or the Fermilab newsroom.

Washington University in St. Louis is a collaborating institution on this project. The ADMX is hosted at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington. Other collaborating institutions include: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; Los Alamos National Laboratory; University of Florida; University of California, Berkeley; and University of Western Australia.

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With her pink suits, chippy chihuahua and Greek chorus of sorority sisters, Elle Woods seems to have it all. But when her well-bred boyfriend, Warner Huntington III, leaves UCLA for Harvard Law, Elle’s dreams for the future come crashing down.

“Elle is certain that Warner will propose,” explained Annamaria Pileggi, professor of the practice in the Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, who will direct Elle’s story, the musical “Legally Blonde,” in Edison Theatre Oct. 25 to Nov. 3.

“Instead, Warner breaks up with her,” Pileggi continued. “She’s not serious enough. ‘I need to marry a Jackie, not a Marilyn,’ he says. Elle is devastated.”

But with support from her fellow Delta Nus, and inspiration from the latest “Town and Country,” Elle soon concocts a plan.

“She’s going to Harvard, too.”

‘We’re all multivalent’

“Legally Blonde” is adapted from the 2001 novel by Amanda Brown, which inspired the hit film with Reese Witherspoon and is loosely based on Brown’s own experiences at Stanford Law School.

Pileggi noted that, for all Elle’s bubble-gum tones and fashionable affectations, “Legally Blonde” raises serious questions about personal identity, social expectations and what it means to be authentic.

“Can a serious woman write with a fluffy pen?” Pileggi asked. “Yes, she can. We’re all multivalent, we don’t have to be just one thing. People encompass many truths.”

After buckling down for LSATs, Elle storms Harvard admissions with a squad of cheerleaders and a recommendation from Oprah herself. But as the semester begins, Elle’s open manner and exaggerated style are mocked by more buttoned-down classmates — most cruelly by Vivian Kensington, Warner’s new girlfriend.

“All Vivian sees is a stereotype,” Pileggi said. “But through the journey of the play, Elle comes to understand that she’s stronger, more intelligent and more independent than she’d realized. She doesn’t have to define herself by the man whose arm she’s on. She gets to be who she is.

“I think that’s a message we all need to hear,” Pileggi concluded. “We’re not just this or that. We’re not defined by how other people see us. We don’t have to fit ourselves into a single box. Being human is a complex proposition.

“You can be a feminist and still love pink.”

Cast and crew

The cast of 26 stars Emma Flannery as Elle, with Max Shteiman and Isabel Koleno as Warner and Vivian. Aidan Stern is Emmett, the teaching assistant who treats Elle kindly. Taylor Emerson, Hayley Emerson and Leighanne Guettler-James are sorority sisters Serena, Margot and Pilar. Jamie Hendler and Ethan Thomas are Paulette the hairdresser and Kyle the UPS driver.

Professor Callahan, who grants Elle a prestigious internship, is played by Stephen Reaugh. Enid, a fellow intern, is played by Emma Thorp. Exercise queen Brooke Wyndham is played by Isabella Gonzalez, with Nina Silverstein as Brooke’s stepdaughter, Chutney; Nathaniel Holmes as the pool boy Nikos; and Jens Tulio Damgaard as Nikos’ boyfriend, Carlos.

Rounding out the cast, in a variety of roles, are Alisha Duvall, Kyla Kikkawa, Natalie Hall, Sarah James, Sofia McGrath, Catherine Herlihy, Amanda Sherman, Alim Merchant, Benjamin Hartmann, Walker Sexton and Evan Moss.

The canine roles of Bruiser and Rufus are played by Tuco and Meatball, respectively.

Music and lyrics are by Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin; the book is by Heather Hach. Set designers are Margery and Peter Spack, with costumes by Mona Jahani and props by Emily Frei. Lighting and sound are by Sean M. Savoie and Jon Zielke. Emily Parise is dramaturg; Emily Finck is assistant director.

The music director is Henry Palkes. Choreography is by Christine Knoblauch-O’Neal. The stage manager is Josh Sarris; hair and makeup are by Julia Praeger; the technical director is Mike Loui.

Tickets

“Legally Blonde” begins at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Oct. 25 and 26; and at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 27. Performances continue the following weekend, at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Nov. 1 and 2; and at 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 3.

Performances take place in Edison Theatre, located in Mallinckrodt Center, 6465 Forsyth Blvd. Tickets are $20, free for WashU students and $15 for other students, seniors and Washington University faculty and staff. Tickets are available through the Edison Theatre Box Office.

For more information, call 314-935-6543.

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About four years ago, Kent Theiling, grounds and landscape design manager, started to select the 250 trees that are now part of the east end of Washington University in St. Louis. He would arrive at dawn at Pea Ridge Forest, a nursery near Hermann, Mo., and walk row after row of oaks and maples, cypresses and elms, searching for trees with straight trunks and sound branch structures.

“You’ll look at a tree and visualize what needs to be done over the next five or 10 years to make sure it’s on its way,” said Theiling, who would be accompanied by representatives from Michael Vergason Landscape Architects, the landscape design team for the east end. “It’s one of the most enjoyable parts of the job.”  

Theiling will introduce the university community to those trees during two 75-minute tours of the east end at 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Oct. 31. The events are part of the Arbor Tour’s 10th anniversary celebration, which also includes a panel discussion about the university’s tree history and self-guided tours of campus trees Oct. 29.  View a complete schedule of events.

Here, Theiling shares more about the tour and how the east end trees were selected. 

What has been planted on the east end? 

We planted 250 trees this past spring and summer and will be planting another 20 or so this fall. They represent 33 different species, 29 of which are native or native cultivars. We also will have 3,000 shrubs of 12 species and 50,000 perennials of 46 species. And we will be planting some 25,000 bulbs that will be flowering in the spring. If you think the landscaping looks nice now, wait until next year. The whole area is just going to explode with new foliage and color as the landscape becomes more established.

How did you decide which species to plant? 

One of the main things we have tried to do, not only on the east end but across campus, is select a diverse selection of trees to cushion ourselves from anything that might come down the road, whether that be an insect or a disease that targets a particular species. Knowing that the climate is warming, we’re also bringing some adaptable trees to campus that traditionally have grown in the South. We also picked trees that are beautiful and bring out the best of architecture of the buildings.

During your 11-year tenure, the university has been recognized as a Tree Campus USA since 2010 and has been awarded a Level 1 accreditation by the ArbNet Arboretum Accreditation Program. What has been the most satisfying part of the job? 

The east end project has definitely been the most rewarding project of my 40-plus-year career. In 25, 50 years, these young trees will make up an allée on both sides of Brookings Hall. It will look different than the Oak Allée that we had before because this diverse array of native and native cultivars has different leaves and tree structures, but it will be something people will really enjoy.

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