A Washington University medical school professor and his brother have released a database that will allow cancer researchers to explore drug-gene interactions more easily.

Eight months after the federal government’s sequester went into effect, Washington University is still feeling the effects of budget cuts to research funding.

As the fiscal cliff looms over Capitol Hill, Chancellor Mark Wrighton and others have begun to worry that its detrimental effects may result in a significant loss of research funding at Washington University.

From George Costanza farcically misreading the lips of Jerry’s deaf girlfriend in an episode of Seinfeld to the Youtube channel “Bad Lip Reading,” which left many Wash U. students giggling behind their MacBooks in Olin library this election season, faulty lip-reading skits find their niche in a wide range of popular comedies, sitcoms and spoofs.

Last week, Washington University announced it will award retired chair and CEO of Monsanto, Richard Mahoney, an honorary degree at the upcoming graduation ceremony. While Monsanto has strong financial ties to the University, they are complex and controversial.

While Washington University offers numerous classes about different cultures and ethnicities, one area that has been lacking in the past is Latino studies. The University, along with Saint Louis University (SLU), University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL) and other local universities, is working to form the St. Louis Coalition for Latino Research.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine have found that the antibiotic Kanamycin (KM), which was previously believed to damage ears, actually has a protective effect against hearing loss in young mice when used in low doses. KM is an antibiotic used to isolate bacteria and treat a variety of infections. It can also lead to severe hearing loss in both human and animals, however.

NASA announced that mission MoonRise, a proposal to send a lander to collect samples from the Moon for analysis, is one of three finalists in the New Frontiers Program. Bradley Jolliff, a Washington University research professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences, is the principal investigator of this mission.

National researchers in cell biology have identified proteins that turn normal skin cells into brown fat cells, which use energy to generate heat.

Across the hall from an analysis of pedophilic overtones in haute couture, a group of students demonstrated a robot they built that follows moving sounds. Just outside, art students sold glass earrings alongside multicolored paintings of dead fish on plywood. This year’s fall Undergraduate Research Symposium saw a record number of participants and, according to the program coordinator, an unusually diverse variety of topics.