Washington People: Rochelle Smith

DBBS Staff Member Rochelle Smith is featured in this week's RECORD:

Rochelle Smith (second from left) talks with students (from left) David Cotter, Paige Cooper and Donell Carey, all graduate students in the Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences, about volunteer opportunities.

Rochelle Smith has a knack for recruiting underrepresented graduate students in the sciences to Washington University.

In the past five years, the number of minority students entering graduate programs each year in the biomedical sciences has almost tripled, as have the number of students entering the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) and the Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences’ (DBBS) summer research programs for undergraduate students. She travels the country to recruit students and finds ways to bring them to the university so they can see it firsthand.

Smith is director of diversity, summer programs and community outreach for DBBS. She is known for her magnetic personality that puts students, faculty and staff at ease.

“Rochelle represents the best of WUSTL,” says Brian Sullivan, executive director of the university’s MSTP. “She balances her commitment to excellence and effectiveness with a concern for the individual, which results in changes not only to structures but also to hearts and minds.”

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Natural compound helps reverse diabetes in mice

Researchers (from left) Shin-ichiro Imai, MD, PhD, Jun Yoshino, MD, PhD, and Kathryn Mills showed that a natural compound, NMN, helps to treat symptoms of diabetes in mice. Photo by: Julia Evangelou Strait

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have restored normal blood sugar metabolism in diabetic mice using a compound the body makes naturally. The finding suggests that it may one day be possible for people to take the compound much like a daily vitamin as a way to treat or even prevent type 2 diabetes.

This naturally occurring compound is called nicotinamide mononucleotide, or NMN, and it plays a vital role in how cells use energy.

"After giving NMN, glucose tolerance goes completely back to normal in female diabetic mice,” says Shin-ichiro Imai, MD, PhD, associate professor of developmental biology. “In males, we see a milder effect compared to females, but we still see an effect. These are really remarkable results. NMN improves diabetic symptoms, at least in mice.”

The research appears online Oct. 4 in Cell Metabolism.

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DBBS Faculty Member wins prestigious Presidential Early Career Award

The White House announced Sept. 27 that Lan Yang, PhD, assistant professor of electrical and systems engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science at Washington University in St. Louis, has been named a recipient of the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE).

The early career award is the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers. This year, there are 94 recipients.

“It is inspiring to see the innovative work being done by these scientists and engineers as they ramp up their careers — careers that I know will not only be personally rewarding but also invaluable to the nation,” President Barack Obama said in the award announcement. “That so many of them are also devoting time to mentoring and other forms of community service speaks volumes about their potential for leadership, not only as scientists but as model citizens.”

“I am pleased that the President has honored Lan with this special award for her world-class record of achievement,” says Ralph S. Quatrano, PhD, dean of the School of Engineering & Applied Science.

“She is a model for other assistant professors, and I have great confidence in her potential for continued future success. As only the fourth assistant professor at Washington University to receive this prestigious recognition since its inception 15 years ago, this award brings great visibility to Lan and her innovative work and to our school and university,” Quatrano says.


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Restoration as science: case of the collared lizard

In a time when a five-year grant is considered a long-term grant, Alan R. Templeton, PhD, a professor of biology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has managed to follow some of the species he studies for 10, 20 or even 30 years.


Early in his career he studied parthenogenesis, or virgin birth, in fruit fly populations at a dump and in cactus patches in Hawaii.

“Drosophilia have fast generation times,” he says, “but I studied them for 12 years. And because I followed them for 12 years, I saw patterns I wouldn’t otherwise have seen. In fact, had I not stuck with it so long, I often would have made incorrect conclusions.”

But the fruitfly study is a sprint compared to his lizard work, described in the cover story of the September 2011 issue of Ecology. The Ecology article covers more than 20 years of a 30-year followup monitoring the reintroduction of collared lizards on Ozark glades in 1984. (For the story in pictures, see the slideshow to the right.)

During this time, 1,662 lizards living on 139 glades on three mountains were captured or recaptured 4,545 times. The acknowledgements section of the paper thanks more than 20 people for their help in capturing lizards.

The major revelation of the work was that burning entire mountains and valleys, called landscape-level burning, undid ecological damage that was slowed but not stopped by smaller prescribed burns.

In fact, it allowed the lizards to undertake their own expanded restoration effort without the assistance of worried biologists.

Moreover, burning benefited many species besides the lizards, including a rare fen orchid and fen dragonfly, that were flying under the radar and would probably never have commanded labor intensive restoration efforts on their own.

In short, fire turned restoration from a time-consuming labor-intensive process to one that ran pretty much on its own.

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Sleep switch found in fruit flies

Rather than count sheep, drink warm milk or listen to soothing music, many insomniacs probably wish for a switch they could flick to put themselves to sleep.



Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have discovered such a switch in the brains of fruit flies. In a study appearing June 24 in Science, the researchers show that a group of approximately 20 cells in the brains of fruit flies controls when and how long the flies sleep. Slumber induced through this sleep switch was essential to the creation of long-term memory, directly proving a connection between memory and sleep that scientists have long suspected.

“This is exciting because this induced sleep state so far appears to be very similar to spontaneous sleep,” says Paul Shaw, PhD, associate professor of neurobiology. “That means we can manipulate these cells to explore a whole new realm of questions about the purposes of sleep. Such studies might one day lead us to more natural ways of inducing sleep in humans.”



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Needlemans receive Eliot Society ‘Search’ Award

photo by Joe Angeles
Philip (left at podium) and Sima Needleman accept the Eliot Society's highest honor at its annual celebration on May 11, as Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton looks on. The Needlemans received the “Search” Award, which is given each year to a person or couple to recognize extraordinary dedication and service to the university. The event was held at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Clayton.

It is one of the most anticipated rites of spring on campus: friends of Washington University in St. Louis gather to mark another year of generosity from the group of alumni, parents and colleagues who collectively provide the largest amount of unrestricted support to the university through membership in the William Greenleaf Eliot Society.


At this year’s Eliot Society event May 11 at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, members enjoyed fine dining and camaraderie, heard an address by former Secretary of State James Baker, III and watched as Sima and Philip Needleman received the Society’s “Search” Award for their extraordinary dedication to Washington University.

“This year’s Search awardees, Philip and Sima Needleman, have an enduring association with Washington University, and have served the institution in many important ways,” Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton says. “It was a pleasure to acknowledge their significant and lasting contributions.”

Eliot Society President John Beuerlein introduced Baker, JD, who provided timely insights regarding foreign policy and current events in the Middle East.

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DBBS Hooding and Recognition Ceremony

On Friday, May 20th awarded 13 PhD students and 17 MD/PhD students their degrees. Here are a few pictures taken on that day. We are so proud of our graduates and wish them the best in all of their future endeavours!