Clinical Research Study Assistant 2 - Emergency Medicine

WashU develops automotive-grade carbon fiber from lignin waste. Single-walled carbon nanotubes guide crystallite alignment in a lignin/PAN precursor that halves PAN use and, researchers report, reduces carbon fiber production costs by 25%. Senior Managing Editor, CompositesWorld and Products Finishing Microscopic "rebar" adds strength to a new kind of carbon fiber material that features functionalized single-walled carbon nanotubes. WashU engineers developed the manufacturing process to make use of lignin and to further strengthen carbon fiber for use in automotive and energy industries. Source | Yuan lab Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis (WashU, Mo., U.S.) have developed a lignin-based renewable carbon fiber that they say meets automotive standards for tensile strength and elastic modulus. It uses less petroleum-derived precursor and costs less to produce than conventional carbon fiber. The work, published in the journal Matter, could extend renewable carbon fiber into autocomposites and other carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) applications. "For the first time, this allows us to create renewable carbon fiber that reaches the high standard of quality used in automobile manufacturing," says Joshua Yuan, Lucy & Stanley Lopata Professor and chair of energy, environmental and chemical engineering at WashU McKelvey Engineering, and director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Carbon Utilization Redesign for Biomanufacturing (CURB) Engineering Research Center at WashU. Quadrupling U.S. Composites capacity. Six months after acquiring SHD, Cambium is standing up a 60,000-sq-ft rapid manufacturing center in Mooresville, N.C. Read the Article Sponsored by SHD Composites Key to the work is making use of a waste material called lignin, the second most abundant natural biopolymer on Earth. Lignin is produced as a byproduct of the paper pulping and biorefining industries, and ordinary disposal methods for lignin result in a substantial environmental footprint. WashU engineers wanted to see if they could use lignin to improve production methods for carbon fiber. The material is traditionally manufactured using synthetic polyacrylonitrile (PAN), a petroleum-derived product that is mixed with chemicals, spun through tiny jets into fibers, washed and stretched. This type of production process for carbon fiber is called "wet spinning." However, PAN is not cheap, accounting for up to 50% of the total manufacturing cost of carbon fiber, which limits its use to high-end products, Yuan notes. By adding affordable and abundant lignin to the process, the WashU team found that they could cut the use of PAN by half, reduce production costs by 25% and also cut carbon emissions substantially. However, the new carbon fiber product still needed to meet automotive standards for tensile strength and elastic modulus. So, researchers also developed another process that is said to greatly improves performance, involving the deployment of single-walled carbon nanotubes into the polymer matrix, which act almost like rebar in lining up the crystallization chemistry. This innovation revealed a new design principle for carbon fiber material development. "Crystallization alignment is critical for carbon fiber quality," Yuan says. The carbon nanotubes allowed WashU researchers to make a precursor solution of the lignin and PAN. Weiwei Li, a postdoctoral scholar in Yuan's lab and first author of the research, described this as a three-step process. "The first step was to create a nanotube template that can mix well with lignin and PAN and allows for high crystallization or orientation," Li explains. "Step two involves running that precursor solution through a wet spinning and tension-assisted heat treatment. Finally, one round of optimized carbonization fully strengthens the fiber. The three steps together maximize the crystallite content, while the carbon nanotubes guide the crystallite orientation to create rebar effects for high mechanical properties." Automotive is just the entry point for the optimized fiber, researchers believe. Everything from sports equipment to wind turbines offer equal potential. This research received support from the Lucy & Stanley Lopata Professorship and US Department of Energy Projects DE EE 0008250. Further support came from the Institute for Materials Science and Engineering (IMSE) and Chemical and Environmental Analysis Facility (CEAF) at WashU as well as the NSF CURB Engineering Research Center (NSF EEC 2330245).

WashU Medicine researchers at Siteman earn national recognition for leukemia research. By Siteman Communications Published: September 11, 2026 | Updated: September 11, 2026 Read time: 2 mins American Society of Hematology awards grants to Francesca Ferraro, Jaebok Choi Two WashU Medicine investigators at Siteman Cancer Center, based at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and WashU Medicine, have been awarded prestigious grants from the American Society of Hematology (ASH), the world's largest professional society serving clinicians and scientists working to conquer blood diseases. Francesca Ferraro, MD, PhD, and Jaebok Choi, PhD, both assistant professors of medicine at WashU Medicine and research members at Siteman Cancer Center, each received an Award for Research Careers in Hematology (ARCH). The merit-based grants provide $150,000 in funding and may be used over one to three years. Separately, Ferraro and Choi study different strategies to improve treatments and outcomes for patients diagnosed with leukemia. They are among 33 awardees announced by ASH on Aug. 25. Collectively, their research is aimed and both hematologic malignancies, such as pediatric and adult leukemia, and benign conditions, including sickle cell disease and neonatal anemia. Together, WashU Medicine and Siteman Cancer Center are one of only four institutions to have two researchers named to the awardee list. "This group of researchers represents the best of the best, and their science has the potential to make a great difference in our understanding of hematologic conditions," said ASH President Robert Negrin, MD. "By investing in these researchers now, we are keeping critical science moving forward and making it clear that patients cannot be left waiting for progress." Ferraro, who treats patients diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and other blood cancers at Siteman Cancer Center, is researching cell mutations that contribute to the development and progression of AML. She and her lab aim to identify mutation-specific vulnerabilities that could be targeted in personalized approaches to improve the effectiveness of current chemotherapies. Choi focuses on graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), a serious complication where the immune cells of a stem cell donor attack a transplant recipient's healthy tissues. His research aims to identify novel genes that may be blocked genetically or with therapeutic drugs to prevent GvHD while maintaining or enhancing the benefits of stem cell transplantation. ASH counts more than 18,000 members from nearly 100 countries and hosts an annual conference that regularly highlights scientific and clinical advances of world-renowned WashU Medicine investigators at Siteman Cancer Center. The 68th ASH Annual Meeting and Exposition is Dec. 12-15 in New Orleans and will spotlight Ferraro and Choi and their newly funded research.

WashU Medicine marketing and communications wins five Telly Awards. August 28, 2026 A movie trailer, local TV spot and documentaries produced by WashU Medicine Marketing & Communications recently won five Telly awards, an international contest honoring excellence in TV and video production. The 47th annual competition recognizes creators, brands and production companies from national television networks, movie studios, major brands, sports teams and universities, among others. The organization received nearly 14,000 entries, a 6% increase from last year and the most ever. And the awards go to... * "In Our Lifetime - Part 1: A Piece of Me" follows a family burdened by inherited early-onset Alzheimer's disease and the hope they find in research led by WashU Medicine. The documentary received a silver award in the category Branded Content - Documentary: Short Form (Under 40 minutes). The team included (cinematographer and editor) Huy Mach, WashU Medicine senior video producer; (producer) Macallan Lay, project manager; (director) Josh Kell, assistant vice chancellor and executive creative director; and Jessica Church, director of media relations. * "Changing What's Possible" is a powerful, 30-second look into WashU Medicine's approach to advancing medicine. The commercial received a silver award in the Local TV Craft Writing category. Recipients were Jessy Lobel, senior creative director, and Kell. * "The Cure Within" documents the first patients in the region to receive a newly approved gene therapy for sickle cell disease and the WashU Medicine physicians who made the opportunity possible. The video won two bronze medals in the categories Branded Content - Documentary: Short Form (Under 40 minutes) and Branded Content - Science & Technology. Staff members involved were Mach, Kell, Church and senior sciences writer Marta Wegorzewska. * "Another Tomorrow" features patients whose lives were transformed by a drug for a genetic form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Research led by WashU Medicine served as the basis for the drug's FDA approval. The trailer received a bronze in the category Film & Shorts - Movie Trailer. Winners were Mach, Lay, Kell and Church.