Washington University

As the COVID-19 death toll continues to climb, Washington University scientists are testing whether lab-engineered proteins known as monoclonal antibodies can be used to treat the illness.

President Trump is far from the first president to face serious illness in office. And it’s not just President Roosevelt or President Wilson who kept the details from the American public. Washington University history professor Peter Kastor puts the president’s bout with COVID-19 in context — and the media’s role in pressing for details or giving the White House a wide zone of privacy.

Doctors at Washington University are investigating whether the commonly used measles, mumps and rubella vaccine could protect people against getting sick with the coronavirus. The large international study is based on the concept of trained immunity – the idea that live vaccines can turbocharge the immune system.

William H. Danforth II, who took the reins of Washington University during a period of financial uncertainty and cultural strife and helped defuse animosities by reading bedtime stories to students, has died. He was 94. 

This summer, the Perseverance rover launched as part of the Mars 2020 mission. It’s scheduled to land on the red planet next February. Washington University's Raymond Arvidson explains his lab’s role with the mission.

For evidence of the coronavirus pandemic’s wide-ranging toll on society, monthly jobs reports and quarterly GDP numbers are go-to sources of information — and highly credible ones. But for a more granular, real-time sense of the extent of community needs, a group of researchers at Washington University has been looking elsewhere: at 211 calls.

The federal Food and Drug Administration has granted an emergency use authorization for a saliva-based coronavirus test developed by scientists at the McDonnell Genome Institute at Washington University.

Robert L. Williams II, who founded Washington University's Black Studies program, was a strong and nurturing man who inspired students and cared deeply about Black literature, dance and theater. Williams, who coined the term "ebonics," died last week.

The specially designed bricks are powerful enough to illuminate an LED light and could someday provide a new way to store renewable energy.

Created using a common livestock virus, the lab-engineered hybrid virus infects human cells and interacts with antibodies like the coronavirus but is safer to work with in the lab. Researchers at Washington University are now testing the new virus as a possible coronavirus vaccine candidate.