News

On Dec. 26, 2004, an earthquake off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, triggered a massive tsunami that killed more than 200,000 people and caused unprecedented destruction in communities along the surrounding coasts of the Indian Ocean.

A staggering 3 million children die from malnutrition across the globe each year, with many more left with long-lasting deficits in their growth and development. Jeffrey I. Gordon, MD – widely regarded as the father of the microbiome – has dedicated his life’s work to changing this paradigm. Gordon, of Washington University School of Medicine […]

In a historic move to prepare future generations for emerging economic realities, Kazakhstan has launched a national Child Development Account (CDA) policy informed by research from the Center for Social Development (CSD).

Uluğ Kuzuoğlu’s new book discusses 20th-century reforms of the Chinese writing system in the context of a growing information economy. Throughout the 20th century, Chinese characters were at risk of disappearing. In his new book “Codes of Modernity: Chinese Scripts in the Global Information Age,” Assistant Professor of History Uluğ Kuzuoğlu explores how the rise of […]

Over last 2,000 years, rising and falling temperatures have altered the way water moves around the planet It’s a multibillion dollar question: What will happen to water as temperatures continue to rise? There will be winners and losers with any change that redistributes where, when and how much water is available for humans to drink […]

The McDonnell International Scholars Academy at Washington University, with support from the Office of the Provost, awards seed grants that stimulate high-impact research linking university experts with our partners around the world. These investments help research teams, often representing cross-disciplinary fields, demonstrate the power and potential of their work. 

Kenneth Olsen, the George William and Irene Koechig Freiberg Professor of Biology, frequently works with international colleagues to study the evolution and genetics of plants. Much of his focus is on rice, a crop that has been grown under human control for 10,000 years. Olsen explained that domesticated crops are like prolonged experiments in natural […]

Jeffrey I. Gordon, MD, explores the “vast, mysterious world” of the microbiome to find solutions to promote healthy growth in malnourished children. In recognition of his groundbreaking work, Gordon, who is the director of the Edison Family Center for Genome Sciences and Systems Biology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, received the 2022 Dr. Paul Janssen Award for Biomedical Research.

The DOLF team, led by Peter Fischer, along with partners at the University of Indonesia and Bruyere Research Institute, has been awarded a new $1.8 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to explore lymphatic filariasis (LF) elimination in Indonesia.  Previously, this collaboration was supported by the 2020 McDonnell Academy seed grant initiative on infectious diseases […]