WashU juniors Omar Abdelmoity, Cedric Bruges, Noah Kabbaj and Marilee Karinshak have received the Barry Goldwater Scholarship, a prestigious award that honors students who conduct research in the natural sciences, mathematics and engineering. Omar Abdelmoity, a biology major in Arts & Sciences and an Ervin Scholar, plans to become a physician, working at the intersection […]
Social media can be an emotional minefield: the vitriol, the unrealistic portrayals of seemingly perfect lives and the doomsday scenarios. Some corners of the internet seem designed to make people feel worse about themselves and their world. But there’s another side to social media: puppies, recipes, “Severance” recaps and meaningful connections. When used carefully and […]
U.S. News & World Report has named WashU’s Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences one of the top 10 psychology graduate programs in the nation — a significant milestone for the department and Arts & Sciences. “Psychological and brain sciences has the distinct honor of being Arts & Sciences’ first PhD program to break the top 10 […]
At the Washington University in St. Louis Board of Trustees meeting March 7, numerous faculty members were appointed or promoted with tenure or granted tenure, effective July 1 unless otherwise indicated. Appointment with tenure Andrew K. Groves as a professor of developmental biology at the School of Medicine (tenure effective April 7) R. Toby Pennington as a […]
Seven faculty members at Washington University in St. Louis are among the 471 new fellows selected by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), one of the most distinct honors in the scientific community. AAAS is the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the Science family of journals. New Fellows will […]
We all know the feeling. After a long day of worrying about looming deadlines and stacked to-do lists, it can be hard to fall asleep. But the connection between anxiety and sleep goes deeper than most people realize, said Rebecca Cox, PhD, assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences. Cox, who joined WashU in Fall 2024, […]
Adolescent and young adult development expert Bronwyn Nichols Lodato, in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, will serve as a member of the U.S. National Committee for Psychological Science within the Policy and Global Affairs division at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. The committee, which is hosted by the […]
About 55 high school students from the St. Louis region and beyond tested their knowledge of the human brain and learned about neuroscience careers at the 15th annual St. Louis Area Brain Bee March 8 at Washington University in St. Louis. Shreenik Enturi, a junior at Fort Zumwalt South High School, won this year’s competition after placing […]
The Charles F. and Joanne Knight Alzheimer Disease Research Center (Knight ADRC) is honored to recognize the achievements of these three promising investigators. The Richard and Mildred Poletsky Award Recipients: The Richard and Mildred Poletsky Education Fund was initiated in 1995 by the family of Mr. Richard Poletsky, a native of St. Louis and alumnus […]
Good parenting can make all the difference as newborns learn to communicate and process information, and an increasing amount of early-childhood development research has shown that parent training is a worthy investment to improve childhood outcomes. However, there may be a limit to how much skilled parenting can improve a newborn’s language and cognition skills, […]
Jeffrey M. Zacks, PhD has been installed as the Edgar James Swift Professor in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. Zacks is chair of the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences in Arts & Sciences as well as a professor of radiology at the School of Medicine. Zacks studies cognition in everyday […]
A one-hour adjustment to the clock on the wall may not sound dramatic. But our biological clock begs to differ. On Sunday, March 9, at 2 a.m. local time, the U.S. “springs forward,” moving the clocks ahead one hour as we enter daylight saving time. Most of us need a few days to adjust to […]
Five researchers from Washington University in St. Louis have been named senior members of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). Among the new senior members are three researchers from the School of Medicine: Rajendra Apte, MD, PhD, Aaron DiAntonio, MD PhD, and John DiPersio, MD, PhD; along with Sophia Hayes, PhD, a professor of chemistry […]
Imagine watching a speaker and another person nearby is loudly crunching from a bag of chips. To deal with this, a person could adjust their attention to downplay those crunch noises or focus their hearing on the speaker. But understanding how human brains do this has been a challenge. Now, with a new neural network […]
On behalf of the Medical Scientist Training Program Committee, we are pleased to announce the recipients of this year’s Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Medical Science Fellows: The Olin Fellowships recognize superior accomplishments in biomedical research by doctoral students at Washington University. 32 outstanding students were nominated for the Olin Fellows Award this year, […]
With the support of a prestigious early-career award from the American Psychological Foundation, Payton Rule, a first-year graduate student in the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, is embarking on a project that will explore the psychological well-being of people with disabilities, a population that sometimes feels left out in an able-centric world. “Disabled people have been […]
The Transdisciplinary Institute in Applied Data Sciences (TRIADS) has announced its newest crop of seed grant recipients, with eight teams of researchers receiving funding. Featuring faculty from four different WashU schools (Arts & Sciences, Brown School, McKelvey School of Engineering, and the School of Medicine), these projects leverage data science to address pressing societal issues. Each research […]
Complex biological networks control a range of functions in the human body from metabolic processes to the sleep cycle. Though scientists have ever-increasing volumes of data about the effects these complex systems produce, fully describing them mathematically has proven difficult. Without a firm understanding, effective interventions continue to be elusive, leaving more than 50 million […]
The complexity of the human brain – 86 billion neurons strong with more than 100 trillion connections – enables abstract thinking, language acquisition, advanced reasoning and problem-solving, and the capacity for creativity and social interaction. Understanding how differences in brain signaling and dynamics produce unique cognition and behavior in individuals has long been a goal […]
Derek Isaacowitz, professor of psychological and brain sciences, has been named the 2025 recipient of the Mid-Career Trajectory in Affective Science Award. He will receive the honor at the Society for Affective Science’s annual conference in Portland, Oregon, in March. Affective science is the study of emotions, including emotional expression and the perception of emotions in others. […]
At the Washington University in St. Louis Board of Trustees meeting Dec. 6, numerous faculty members were appointed with or granted tenure, with new titles and roles effective that day unless otherwise indicated. Appointment with tenure Eric J. Huang, MD, PhD, as a professor of pathology and immunology at the School of Medicine (tenure took […]
When studying substance use disorders, scientists had thought some of the effects on the brain could stem from use of the substances themselves: People start drinking alcohol in early teens, that alcohol has a neurotoxic effect on the developing brain that begets more alcohol drinking, and a similar dynamic occurs with other substances. But research […]
Virtually every cell in the human body has an internal clock. These clocks take their cues from a central clock in the brain. In a normal, biological process called synchrony, the central clock coordinates daily rhythms around the body, so that every cell and tissue recognizes the same external time of day. Knowing local time […]
Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia are devastating disorders that emerge following the buildup of misfolded proteins in the brain. The newest generation of Alzheimer’s therapeutics targets accumulations of the protein amyloid beta with engineered antibodies, but the results have been underwhelming, with some adverse effects, not to mention using engineered antibodies can be prohibitively expensive. […]
Deanna Barch, PhD, a leading scholar in the field of cognitive and language deficits in disorders like schizophrenia, recently won two honors from national organizations. Barch is vice dean of research and a professor of psychological and brain sciences in Arts & Sciences and the Gregory B. Couch Professor of Psychiatry at the School of Medicine, […]
Fructose consumption has increased considerably over the past five decades, largely due to the widespread use of high-fructose corn syrup as a sweetener in beverages and ultra-processed foods. New research from Washington University in St. Louis shows that dietary fructose promotes tumor growth in animal models of melanoma, breast cancer and cervical cancer. However, fructose […]
WashU researchers are studying how the brain perceives, processes, and remembers everyday events.
Washington University in St. Louis seniors Elijah Darden and Isaac Seiler were both Rhodes Scholars finalists, one of the world’s highest academic honors. Darden, 22, is majoring in psychological and brain sciences and minoring in music, both in Arts & Sciences. He is a member of the Rodriguez Scholars program and president of WashU’s Emergency […]
A new study from the Hengen Lab published in Neuron takes a closer look how diseases like Alzheimer’s affect cell teamwork. To function properly, our brains need to maintain balance—a homeostatic set-point called criticality. “It’s as excitable as the system can be without losing control,” Keith Hengen, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biology, explained. “At criticality, patterns of all […]
The Washington University in St. Louis community came together Nov. 9 at its annual Founders Day celebration to honor the outstanding achievements of some of the university’s most distinguished faculty, alumni and friends. The event was held at the St. Louis Union Station Hotel. Four faculty were among those recognized at the event, which was […]
At the Washington University in St. Louis Board of Trustees meeting Sept. 27, numerous faculty members were granted tenure, effective that day. Granting of tenure Kirsten Gilbert Alberts, PhD as an associate professor of psychiatry at WashU Medicine; Robert A. Campbell, PhD as an associate professor of emergency medicine at WashU Medicine; Carmen M. Halabi, MD, PhD as […]
Faculty and university leadership selected Wesley Wagner, a graduate student in chemistry, as the winner of the 2024 Dean’s Award for Graduate Research Excellence. Six additional graduate students were also recognized.
When trying to understand how genetic influences factor into youth behavior, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have taken the “big trawl” approach, casting their net wide to pull in all the measured traits, behaviors and environments that make up who we are and examine associations with the genetic building blocks comprising risk for […]
Mindfulness-based approaches are mental health practices intended to ground people, help them focus attention, and teach them how to think through overwhelming emotions and problems, but that is just the start. The more people are taught ways to better handle stress, the better protected they may be from the physiological problems that stress produces, including […]
The Harvey A. Friedman Center for Aging at WashU has received an 18-month $136,000 grant from the RRF Foundation for Aging to study how older adults understand and experience ageism. Ageism is “prevalent, invisible and hurts older people and communities,” said Nancy Morrow-Howell, PhD, the Bettie Bofinger Brown Distinguished Professor of Social Policy at the Brown […]
For the first time, annual research funding to Washington University in St. Louis has surpassed $1 billion. External funding supports WashU investigators tackling big challenges from Alzheimer’s disease to air pollution to childhood depression. Research funding also ripples across the economy, sparking job growth, new construction and local spending, said Chancellor Andrew D. Martin. “There […]
The new project stemmed from an unexpected discovery made when researchers trained an artificial neural network to study car dashcam footage.
St. Louis is vying for a $160 million grant that leaders and academics hope will turbocharge the neuroscience sector and rectify entrenched health disparities throughout the region. The effort is part of an application to be one of the next National Science Foundation’s Regional Innovation Engines. The idea is to help assets in higher education, nonprofits, […]
When you think of mindfulness, a personal practice of deep breathing, meditation or pausing for reflection might come to mind. Expanding its use beyond the individual benefit to the collective to achieve systemic change and organizational equity is the focus of a prestigious National Science Foundation grant recently awarded to Washington University in St. Louis. […]
The Research Development Office in the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research is pleased to announce the final awardees from FY 2024 of the Here and Next Seed Grant Program. The program’s broad goal is to encourage novel, innovative interdisciplinary research excellence amongst Washington University researchers on both the Med School and Danforth Campuses. […]
As a new academic year begins, Washington University in St. Louis is unveiling a new visual identity and an enhanced effort to communicate its important contributions in the areas of education, research and patient care to key internal and external audiences. The update includes a new university logo and website and the official adoption of […]
A new cross-disciplinary study by Washington University in St. Louis researchers has uncovered an unexpected psychological phenomenon at the intersection of human behavior and artificial intelligence (AI): When told they were training AI to play a bargaining game, participants actively adjusted their own behavior to appear more fair and just, an impulse with potentially important […]
In humans and other animals, signals from a central circadian clock in the brain generate the seasonal and daily rhythms of life. They help the body to prepare for expected changes in the environment and also optimize when to sleep, eat and do other daily activities. Scientists at Washington University in St. Louis are working […]
Dwight A. McBride, PhD, the Gerald Early Distinguished Professor in Arts & Sciences and a senior advisor to the chancellor, is now executive director of the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity & Equity (CRE2), Washington University in St. Louis announced. His appointment took effect July 1. McBride, a nationally recognized scholar of race and literary […]
Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis and Dartmouth College have discovered a connection between toddler hair cortisol levels — a long-term stress biomarker — and maternal prenatal depression. The findings, published in the American Journal of Human Biology, suggest that a child’s long-term stress physiology — or how the body responds to stress — may […]
Scientists are trying to understand how cannabis may affect long-term neurodevelopment when people were exposed to it in the womb. Previous work by Washington University in St. Louis researchers Sarah Paul and David Baranger in the Behavioral Research and Imaging Neurogenetics (BRAIN) lab led by Ryan Bogdan, PhD, found associations between prenatal cannabis exposure and potential mental health conditions in childhood […]
On the first day of class, Elinor Harrison, AB ’01, PhD ’18, asks her students to think about the primary purpose of the brain. “Cognition? Perception? Motor learning? Emotion? “Of course, that’s a trick question,” she says. “There’s no real way to separate these phenomena. They are all integral to the human experience.” Harrison is […]
Stan Braude, a professor of practice in biology and in environmental studies in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, died at home Saturday, June 1, 2024, after a short illness. He was 62. Braude earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in biology at the University of Michigan, spending summers at the […]
Bettina Drake, PhD, professor of surgery in public health sciences at the School of Medicine, will be the inaugural faculty director of the St. Louis Confluence Collaborative for Community-Engaged Research, Teaching and Practice, Washington University in St. Louis Provost Beverly Wendland announced May 31. The new role takes effect July 1. The collaborative, identified as […]
What happens when biological and artificial intelligence meet? Since its launch in 2022 as a multiyear project funded by the Incubator for Transdisciplinary Futures, Toward a Synergy Between Artificial Intelligence and Neuroscience has explored the intersections between the human brain and the novel AI networks that seek to emulate its functions. On May 15, that work culminated in […]