Our Highlights

These entrepreneurial St. Louisans are taking novel approaches that are reshaping a range of sectors in ways large and small.

The gender gap in patent applications is a well-documented phenomenon. While women make up nearly half of the workforce in the United States, they account for only a fraction of patent applications and patents granted.

Washington University in St. Louis continues to play a vital role in the local economy, providing jobs, supporting local businesses and drawing millions in research dollars to the region. During fiscal year 2023 which concluded on June 30, the university’s direct and indirect contributions to the St. Louis economy totaled $8.8 billion. WashU also supported a total of 54,380 jobs in the region.

Office of Technology Management fuels entrepreneurial spirit

The university’s recently established Needleman Program for Innovation and Commercialization (NPIC) will provide critical funding to help move research toward early-stage clinical trials and commercialization. The first three awardees are Carl DeSelm, MD, PhD, John F. DiPersio, MD, PhD, and Kory Lavine, MD, PhD. 

Understanding the brain and nervous system is one of the most pressing challenges in medicine. To meet this challenge, WashU Medicine has built and is opening the Neuroscience Research Building, a 609,000-square-foot facility expected to be among the nation’s premier neuroscience research hubs.

COVID-19, RSV and influenza A are the most predominant of seasonal viruses, each transmitted through aerosols and droplets that are easily spread indoors. A team of researchers at Washington University is developing an inexpensive, handheld breathalyzer that could make rapid screening a step closer to reality.

A device aimed at enabling neurosurgeons and other physicians to perform noninvasive blood-based biopsies in adults with brain tumors has received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) “Breakthrough Device” designation. The device includes technology from Washington University in St. Louis and developed by Cordance Medical Inc., a medical device company in Mountain View, Calif.

Shripad Bhagwat, PhD, a drug development expert with decades of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, has been named the inaugural senior director of the Needleman Program for Innovation and Commercialization (NPIC) at Washington University in St. Louis. 

Sonobiopsies generate genetic, molecular data to inform treatment decisions for brain diseases