Student Life Archives

In an unprecedented attempt to bridge the gap between the radiology room and the courtroom, Washington University’s Schools of Medicine and Law will be collaborating to decide how brain scans should be used within the legal system.

The University will contribute neuroscientists and legal scholars, in coordination with over two dozen other universities nationwide, to work on the $10 million project.

Researcher Marcus Raichle, a professor in the schools of Medicine, Arts & Sciences, and Engineering, is co-directing one of the three research groups.

“Somebody with a brain lesion or disorder-clearly their behavior has been altered by this. Are they responsible for their actions?” said Raichle, “A teenager who has committed a crime-should they be held responsible? If so or not, how do we decide this?”

The project’s first three years are funded by a $10 million MacArthur Foundation grant with the purpose of “addressing the topics of addiction, brain abnormalities and decision making as they relate to complex issues such as criminal responsibility,” according to a press release by the Foundation.

One problem Raichle discussed was the admissibility of obscene or offensive evidence in court cases.

Judges are often called to evaluate whether evidence is too disagreeable for jurors to be able to deliberate rationally, possibly influencing the outcome of a case. Experts in neuroscience and psychology may be able to shed light on some of these centuries-old judicial practices, with the hope of shaping the legal system for the better.

Those in favor of the project hope that it will make our insights on important legal concepts such as guilt, punishment, treatment, the detection of lies and bias, and prediction of criminal behavior more accurate, keeping fewer innocent people in jail, and convicting more of the guilty people.

“We’re looking for information and taking a forward look at these issues,” said Raichle. “The question is ‘how do we think about these problems?'”

Skeptics, however, fear that incorporating brain-imaging technology into the legal system may violate rights to privacy and undermine personal responsibility, possibly undermining some of the basic assumptions of law.

Some specific goals of the project will be to hold conferences, publish judicial guidelines for handling neuroscientific evidence, develop scientific research proposals relevant to legal proceedings and possibly publish textbooks for Law and Neuroscience courses at universities.

There will be three working groups to study addiction, brain abnormalities and decision making, the last of which being co-directed by Raichle and Owen Jones, professors of law and of biological sciences at Vanderbilt University.

The MacArthur Foundation is one of the largest private grant-making foundations and awards $225 million annually in grants and low-interest loans. For more information about the project, visit http://lawandneuroscienceproject.org.

Thirty-five years ago, astronaut Charlie Duke was driving on the moon. On Thursday, he’ll be presenting a prestigious $10,000 scholarship to senior Lonia Friedlander.

Duke will present a talk entitled “A Journey to the Moon” after the awards ceremony. The talk, which is open and free to the public, is scheduled this afternoon. Prior to the talk, Duke will get to see some of the lunar samples that he collected in April of 1972 in the lab.

“I can’t wait to meet him,” said Friedlander. “Astronauts really interest me because they risk their lives for science.”

Friedlander is one of 19 students in the country this year and the second student in the Pathfinder program in the past four years to receive this award from the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation. Students are selected by the astronauts for excellence in their science or engineering field as well as their well-rounded contributions outside of the lab.

“We’re very proud of Lonia,” said Raymond Arvidson, who also heads the Pathfinder program in Environmental Sustainability. “She’s off and running.”

It all began when Friedlander visited the University on a whim. Although it was her first college visit, she applied Early Decision and signed up for the Pathfinder program.

“I jokingly say it’s the best arbitrary decision I ever made,” said Friedlander.

In the summer of her sophomore year, Friedlander traveled to Spain after being offered a research opportunity by Arvidson.

“I’m interested in science because I think it is possibly the best way to study the physical world,” said Friedlander.”

Friedlander’s research deals with ground water salts similar to those found on Mars.

“We were studying the spectroscopy of a certain family of minerals that appear to be relatively similar to those in Mars and figure out how they change in various conditions,” said Friedlander.

Friedlander has been working in the Earth and Planetary Remote Sensing Lab analyzing data sent back from the Mars Rovers and making suggestions to mission operations.

“The Earth and Planetary Sciences Department is cool because it’s relatively small but really involved,” said Friedlander.

Fellow Pathfinders are participating in the Phoenix rover, projected to land on Mars in May.

Friedlander plans to use the scholarship to pay for some of her undergraduate tuition.

“I get the check and hand it to Chancellor Wrighton, essentially,” said Friedlander.

When not in the lab, Friedlander likes to dance and help other students with their chemistry. In her freshman year, she was part of Washington University Dance Theater. Last summer, she was part of a West African dance group in St. Louis.

In a statement from Monday’s Record, Duke said, “Lonia will be one of the many leaders who will keep the United States at the edge of breakthrough technology, and I consider it an honor to be presenting her with this check.”

Duke was present in mission control when Neil Armstrong, announcing his arrival on the moon, said “Houston.the eagle has landed.”

Years later, he became the 10th of only 12 men to walk on the moon. He and astronaut John Young stayed on the lunar surface for a record-setting 71 hours and 14 minutes where they collected 213 pounds of lunar samples, drove a Lunar Rover and planted scientific equipment.

The speaker event will begin at 2:30 pm in room 300, Brookings Hall.

A new strain of virus has been identified by the medical school and named the “WU” virus after Washington University.

Graduate student Anne Gaynor believes that further testing might indicate that the virus infects young children, becomes latent in the kidney and causes illness later in life when the immune system is compromised, such as in elderly and HIV-infected people.

The virus, a type known as a polyomavirus, is closely related to two others, JC and BK, which attack the nervous system of HIV patients and cause kidney transplants to fail, respectively. However, the research team still has much to uncover about WU.

“There [also] doesn’t appear to be any difference in gender or ethnicity at this point,” said Gaynor.

A Web site maintained by David Wang, a University professor who leads the research team, states that the WU virus has unique properties unlike either of the others and he questions if it even is a human pathogen.

Gaynor says that it may even be related to a virus which infects non-human primates.

The virus has been reported in such geographically disparate countries as the United States, Australia, Germany and Korea, according to Gardner.

In fact, the first samples of the then-unknown WU virus came from the University of Queensland in Australia.

The samples were sent to the University because the school has ViroChip, a sophisticated pan-viral DNA microarray. This tool allows scientists to quickly screen viral samples and compare their structure to more than 22,000 known viruses. It was instrumental in distinguishing SARS from known viruses during the 2003 outbreak.

Several thousand young subjects have been studied by taking respiratory secretions. Researchers found that as many as three percent of those with respiratory infections also tested positive for the WU virus.

“Seventy percent of these kids have a secondary infection,” said Gaynor. “There is every range of infections, and some have two, three or up to five other infections.”

While this does not necessarily indicate a cause and effect relationship, it is enough for researchers to question the nature of the virus.

Even a one-day-old infant was found to be infected, illustrating that the virus might be able to pass from a mother to the fetus via the umbilical cord.

As of yet, researchers are unaware of any environmental factors or genetic predispositions that cause people to be more susceptible or resistant to contracting the virus. It does seem, however, that as the virus mostly infects people when their immune systems are weak, either by extreme age or illness.

Gaynor, who has been working in Wang’s lab for more than three years, wrote an article for “PLoS,” a national medical journal. Gaynor collaborated with Wang and other graduate students on the article, “Identification of a novel polyomavirus from patients with acute respiratory tract infections,” which introduced the WU virus to the medical community. Since its publication in May, the research team has been considering how to continue their study.

“We want to look at who has antibodies to this and at what age are you going to get them, when you will be infected,” said Gaynor. “Also, can we associate [the WU virus] with a disease? That’s sort of the next logical step. Right now, it’s an identified virus, but not a pathogen. We have to prove that it causes diseases.”

These viruses are called polyoma, meaning multiple tumors, and they are all known to cause tumors in rats.

“The thing I’m going to work on is determining if our virus can transform normal cells into a malignant phenotype in vitro, much like other members of this family,” she said.

The researchers must first grow tissue cultures and then inject those infected cells into a mouse. If the hypothesis is true, rats will develop tumors in whatever cells the WU virus is introduced, regardless of the type of tissue.

This experiment will be a good step toward determining the full scope of the University’s mysterious new virus.

Go to the molecular microbiology website to read more.

Social activist and political commentator Jeff Johnson will headline the annual Black Arts and Sciences Festival lecture Wednesday at 11 a.m. at Graham Chapel.

The festival, which began on Sunday, is one of the Association of Black Student’s (ABS) major programs. This year’s festival is focusing on activism and how to achieve change.

“There are different ways to be activists and that’s what we’re trying to highlight,” said ABS President Sarah Johnson.

Mr. Johnson’s lecture, entitled “Become Activists: Building Effective Campus Organizations and Maintaining Excellence,” is co-sponsored by the Assembly Series.

“[Mr. Johnson] will be speaking on how we as young people can he influential forces of change on our college campus,” said Jasmine Taylor, ABS programming co-chair.

According to Ms. Johnson, ABS made its selection partially because of Mr. Johnson’s history as a political commentator and the controversy he raised.

“Not everyone agreed with what he had to say,” said Ms. Johnson. “But he is very interested in making people become activists.”

Johnson’s lecture is part of the annual Black Arts and Sciences Festival, a weeklong event that is focusing on how students can impact today’s world.

“It’s a national, even world wide feeling that people are getting that things will not change from their parent’s generation without effort,” said Ms. Johnson. “People are realizing that nothing will change unless you get up and do something about it.”

Each event will be labeled Acts I-VI, and the last event will be the annual ABS semi-formal, which will be called the Final Act.

“We are using a bit of a theatrical theme,” said Omolade Alawode, ABS programming co-chair.

Mr. Johnson has made occasional appearances on BET talk shows and created his own successful television programs, “Cousin Jeff” and “The Jeff Johnson Chronicles.” In 2004, Mr. Johnson was the first to cover Democratic national conventions for BET.

Since his appointment with the NAACP as National Youth Director, Johnson has attempted to generate interest in social and political arenas among young activists, including the development of MyNationOnline.com, a Web site devoted to social activism and spreading awareness.

Mr. Johnson is currently writing a book, tentatively entitled “Black and Brown: The Conversation on Race America Has Never Had.” Johnson plans to express the need for honest communication between Black and Latino communities.

Mr. Johnson’s lecture is open to all University students, faculty, staff and the entire St. Louis community.

“We would love to see a diverse crowd fill [Graham Chapel] to capacity,” said Taylor.

Other events in the festival include a voter education forum on Thursday and the annual ABS semi-formal on Saturday night.

“We want to be active votes and we want to get people registered,” said Ms. Johnson. “We’re going to talk about the major issues in this election and how to vote by absentee ballot.”

For additional information regarding Johnson’s lecture, call 314-935-5285 or visit assemblyseries.wustl.edu.

-With additional reporting by Sam Guzik.

The Washington University Genome Sequencing Center issued a public response on its Web site yesterday in response to controversial comments on race and intelligence made by James Watson, the biologist who discovered the structure of DNA along with Francis Crick.

Watson, who shared the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, recently suggested a genetic difference in intelligence between Africans and non-Africans.

Watson later retracted and apologized for his statement, stating that there was no scientific basis for his claims of genetic inferiority by race. Several days after, he resigned from his post at Cold Spring Harbor National Laboratory.

The Genome Sequencing Center’s (GSC) online statement opposed Watson’s original claims.

“Based on our collective extensive training and experience in biology and genetics, we do not support any notion of intellectual inferiority based on race, ethnicity, or gender,” read part of the statement. “Furthermore, we know of no scientific evidence that demonstrates that this is the case.”

Allan Larson, professor of biology, similarly rejected those notions of race and intelligence.

“[Watson’s] statement is a personal prejudice that in my opinion has no validity that even as a scientific hypothesis could be tested,” said Larson.

Larson also questioned the existence of any evidence that could be called genetic intelligence, and suggested that the statements were rooted in personal prejudice and were without any scientific validity.

“What does he even mean by ‘intelligence’?” asked Larson. “My impression is that the statement was illogical and a personal prejudice and he refers to it as if it’s something measurable. He’s making statements about cultures that are variable and probably have different ideas of intelligence. There is no possibility of a scientific basis for his claims.”

Will Ross, director of the Office of Diversity Programs, and assistant at the University School of Medicine, took a similar stance on the matter.

“There is absolutely no evidence to support that sort of correlation; it’s been a pseudo-science by the likes of The Bell Curve,” said Ross. “It really sets this whole issue of race and intelligence back when anyone makes a statement like that; it’s so unsubstantiated. I’m hoping that salient minds prevail and recognize this is an issue not supported by science,” he said.

Ross added that while the University seeks different perspectives, Watson’s comments were not acceptable in any institution of higher education.

“While we do promote an understanding of difference, there has to be an intolerance of things that are hateful and only serve to perpetuate stereotypes, which was the case with Dr. Watson,” he said. “Any university that prides itself on multiculturalism would not allow these comments to go unchecked.”

According to the St. Louis American, a Missouri newspaper targeted to African Americans, the name “watson” was dropped from University e-mail addresses.

The original e-mail servers for the GSC were named “watson” and “crick”-and so e-mail addresses would end in @watson.wustl.edu or @crick.wustl.edu-but over time the GSC has accumulated many servers. The current e-mail server is named “genome.”

Richard Wilson, professor of genetics and director of the GSC, stressed that dropping “watson” from the e-mail server was not a direct effect of Watson’s statements. Rather, the name has simply been disappearing over time.

“In large places they [e-mail addresses] tend to migrate,” said Wilson. “Very early in our days, Watson was the name of one of our servers, and it hasn’t been for many years. The e-mail addresses take time to change and it’s slowly going away. People can make the changes themselves; it’ll probably go away by itself.”

Ross also noted that the issue with the e-mail server at the GSC was not directly related to Watson’s recent comments.

“Wilson made an internal response, which speaks for itself,” he said. “There are larger issues than an e-mail server.”

To read the GSC Statement on Race and Genetics, go to the GSC website.