Our Highlights

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is channeling $50.3 million over the next five years into a new consortium dedicated to advancing the generation and analysis of multi-omics data for human health research. As part of this team, Washington University in St. Louis is establishing and will lead a central production center that functions as a hub for multi-omics analyses for materials from consortium members at each of six disease study sites identified by the NIH.

Scientists at Washington University in St. Louis have developed a breath test that quickly identifies those who are infected with the virus that causes COVID-19. The device requires only one or two breaths and provides results in less than a minute.

Proof-of-concept device could also monitor for flu, RSV, other respiratory viruses

David T. Curiel, MD, PhD, and Michael S. Diamond, MD, PhD, both of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, have received the Washington University Chancellor’s Award for Innovation and Entrepreneurship for their development of a nasal vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

A WashU-based life sciences startup that patented a groundbreaking bloodstream marker that flags potential cardiovascular disease recently won a $250,000 investment prize in a major national pitch competition.

Wearable brain-imaging tech aims to reveal how the brain works in natural, realistic situations. Washington University faculty members Joseph P. Culver, Jason Trobaugh and Ed Richter, along with Adam Eggebrecht, have received a grant from the NIH to develop and commercialize a brain-imaging cap that uses LED light to gauge brain activity.

Diabetes researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have uncovered at least one reason insulin-secreting cells made from stem cells in the lab don’t work as well as natural cells. The discovery could help speed progress toward making insulin-secreting cells — called islet beta cells — more effective in the treatment of insulin-dependent Type 1 diabetes.

A team led by Washington University in St. Louis has been awarded $1 million over two years from the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Regional Innovation Engines, or NSF Engines, program. The team, called NEURO360, is among some 40 teams nationwide to receive NSF Engines Development Awards, which aim to spur collaborations to create economic, societal and technological opportunities for their respective regions.

The newly established Needleman Program for Innovation and Commercialization at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis is seeking proposals to fund promising new therapeutic candidates with the goal of achieving designation as investigational new drugs by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The venture capital (VC) industry has backed some of the most successful American companies and innovation. It is responsible for tremendous growth in pension funds and endowments in recent years and is considered one of the great American inventions, according to Doug Villhard, director of the entrepreneurship program at Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis.