The latest news from the UW

The University of Washington School of Medicine has opened a Division of Neurogenetics to study the root causes of hereditary diseases that rob people of their minds and bodies: the diseases that ravage the human brain and nervous system.

An article in today’s New England Journal of Medicine sheds light on a deadly but largely unknown disease studied by University of Washington scientists. A diagnosis of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) type IV increases the chance that the affected person will meet an early death. The disease alters one of the building blocks of important tissues in the body, so that people are at risk to rupture their arteries, intestines or uterus.

Children are more likely to suffer unintentional injuries within 90 days of a sibling’s injury, according to a study conducted at the Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center published in the March 2000 issue of Pediatrics.

Four-student teams from 12 Western Washington high schools competing to show their science and mathematics mastery.

Around the theme of “Step into the Future,” the UW Health Sciences Open House 2000 will highlight the latest advances in medical research, patient care and teaching, as well as offer information on exciting careers in health care.

“Ears, Hearing and Beyond” is the subject of a free public conference on hearing loss, to be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, March 11, in the HUB Auditorium on the University of Washington campus.

Dr. Mary-Claire King, University of Washington professor of medicine and genetics, will give the third and last in this year’s series of free public lectures sponsored by the newly created University of Washington Science Forum. Her lecture, “Genomic Views of Human History,” will be held at 7:30 pm. Tuesday, March 14, in Kane Hall room 130 on the UW campus.

Teams from Sedro-Woolley High School claimed first place – for the second year running – and teams from Garfield High School placed second and third Saturday during the state’s Ocean Sciences Bowl sponsored by the University of Washington’s College of Ocean and Fishery Sciences.

Probably not one in a thousand Puget Sound residents has ever heard of the Nuosu people of remote southwestern China. Stevan Harrell wants to change that.

An expert on international human rights law, Joan Fitzpatrick, has been named the holder of a new endowed professorship at the University of Washington School of Law.

Patients filling a prescription usually can rely on their pharmacist to warn of possible negative side effects caused by interactions with other prescriptions and over-the-counter medications that they may be taking. But two top national experts on drug interactions from the University of Washington School of Pharmacy believe the health-care provider actually writing the prescription should be the first line of defense against such interactions.

A two-day event to explore labor’s role in furthering global justice, in an interactive setting that includes labor and the coalition partners who helped make history the week of the WTO Ministerial in Seattle.

University of Washington research, to be published in the Feb. 17 edition of the journal Nature, suggests the health of the ecosystem is rooted in a complex codependency between plants and animals that produce organic matter and simple organisms that break it down.

WHO:
Two teams of high school students, one sponsored by the University of Washington’s Department of Electrical Engineering and the Seattle Robotics Society and the other by Microsoft Corp.

Ravi Desai may be an Internet entrepreneur, but his first love is poetry. To ensure that poetry continues to thrive at the University of Washington, he has made a $2 million gift to the UW’s Creative Writing Program.

After a decade as one of Seattle’s top city leaders, former City Council President Sue Donaldson has joined the University of Washington to run a public-policy forum and teach courses in public affairs and lawAfter a decade as one of Seattle’s top city leaders, former City Council President Sue Donaldson has joined the University of Washington to run a public-policy forum and teach courses in public affairs and law

Myron Apilado, vice president for minority affairs at the University of Washington since 1990, announced today his intention to step down from that position by the end of the year 2000.

Venture capitalist Neal Dempsey has donated $3 million to kick off an initiative by the University of Washington Business School to infuse technology into every aspect of training the next generation of managers.

A $1.6 million gift from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will allow expansion of a statewide program designed to involve students in math, science and engineering into the elementary grades, a move the program’s leaders call crucial in encouraging more women and minorities to enter science and engineering careers.

The University of Washington and Immunex Corp. announced today that they have joined forces in support of the School of Medicine’s Cell Systems Initiative (CSI) – a new scientific discovery program dedicated to the comprehensive study of the information systems that operate within all living cells and organisms.

Richard Johnston isn’t looking to build a better mousetrap. He wants to get rid of the mouse, period. The former University of Washington researcher and founder of a new start-up company called Dot On has found a way to demouse home computers.

Two of the people most responsible for taking computers out of the laboratory and into the hands of millions are coming to Seattle on Tuesday to talk about how technology can make its next leap and bring progress to an even greater number of people.

Free lecture “Volcanos, Oceans and Life in Our Solar System: A Fiber-Optic Telescope to Inner Space” by University of Washington oceanographer John Delaney.

As scientists who are fascinated by biology and enjoy communicating its wonders, David and Ilona Barash are concerned that many people don’t know their DNA and RNA from their ABCs.

The World Trade Organization will never gain broad public acceptance until it becomes much more open and democratic, a new University of Washington opinion survey indicates.

This is a story about a man who loved poetry, his three sons who graduated from the University of Washington, and the bonds that tie a community to a university. The story will be retold on Feb. 12 in the introduction to the second annual Afrassiabi Memorial Lecture, which honors Hooshang Afrassiabi, a leader of the local Iranian community who died two years ago.

A major study on heroin addiction treatment enters an important phase
Feb. 1, as Harborview Medical Center becomes the first health-care facility in the country to dispense methadone through a pharmacy for patients recovering from heroin addiction.

African Americans have become an increasingly vital force in Washington’s economy, spending more than $2 billion annually and owning more than 6,600 businesses, according to a new University of Washington report.

As World Trade Organization delegates left Seattle in a cloud of tear gas and disappointment, University of Washington scholars began studying and debating the outcome and its implications for the future.

Four University of Washington (UW) third-year medical students have started their six-month WWAMI Rural Integrated Training Experience (WRITE) in three rural towns.

Women who drink heavily are significantly more likely than their male counterparts to suffer from liver disease, depression, psychological distress, and recent physical, emotional or sexual abuse, according to a study by researchers at Harborview Medical Center published in the January 2000 issue of the Journal of Trauma.

The University of Washington (UW) School of Medicine’s pediatric training unit in Spokane will be honored Jan. 24 for more than a quarter century of teaching UW medical students and pediatric residents about children’s health care.

Independent audits of the UW for the year ended June 30, 1999, presented recently to the Board of Regents, show a remarkable lack of major problems for a large, complex and highly decentralized institution.

University of Washington surgeons performed the region’s first two operations of their kind yesterday to help men avoid their greatest fear about prostate cancer surgery: impotence.

Jon Jory, producing director at the acclaimed Actors Theatre of Louisville, has been appointed to the faculty of the nationally renowned University of Washington School of Drama, pending final approval by the Board of Regents on January 21.

The first surgery of its kind in the region, performed at University of Washington Medical Center, has given a once very ill 48-year-old Alaska man, who faced a lung transplant and/or potentially heart failure, a normal life expectancy and the hope of living a normal life.

Richard L. McCormick, in a speech to be delivered Jan. 20 to the Association of American Colleges and Universities at its annual meeting at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Washington, D.C., outlines the steps that the university is taking to cope with the passage in November 1998 of Initiative 200, which prohibited the use of race or ethnicity as factors in college admissions

Meg Greenfield’s lifelong passion for classical languages and literature did not end when the former Washington Post editorial page editor and Pulitzer Prize winner died last May. The journalist has left a bequest valued at about $2.9 million to the University of Washington’s department of classics.

The first total lunar eclipse in more than two years will occur Thursday and, barring cloudy skies, Northwest residents should get some spectacular views.

University of Washington researchers trying to understand the roots and continuity of aggressive behavior in children are looking for 100 families in the greater Seattle area to participate in a new study.