Research

Over the last two decades, the Weinberg College-housed Program in Environmental Policy and Culture (EPC) at Northwestern has embraced the humanities and social sciences and cultivated a new generation of environmental stewards. Growing up in Portland, Oregon, Fiona Lenth describes her...

During the first half of the 20th century, many states passed labor laws in response to the influx of women into the modern workplace. The so-called protective labor laws enacted by U.S. states restricted women’s economic opportunities through maximum hours...

New institute will study psychology of emerging adults, leading to innovative wellness programming for students at the University and beyond Northwestern University is launching the Institute for Adolescent Mental Health and Well-Being, an interdisciplinary initiative to research issues related to the...

Scientists at Northwestern University have developed a new approach that directly combats the progression of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). In these devastating illnesses, proteins misfold and clump together around brain cells, which ultimately leads to...

Scientists at Northwestern University and University of California, Santa Barbara have created the first synthetic fragment of tau protein that acts like a prion. The “mini prion” folds and stacks into strands (or fibrils) of misfolded tau proteins, which then...

Scientists at Northwestern University and University of California San Diego have developed a new, potent injectable therapy that can protect the heart from damage after a heart attack. The therapeutic approach comprises specially designed polymers that act like proteins. These protein-like...

Historically, the vast majority of pharmaceutical drugs have been meticulously designed down to the atomic level. The specific location of each atom within the drug molecule is a critical factor in determining how well it works and how safe it...

Human language allows us to learn new words for things we’ve never witnessed directly. We do this seamlessly, for example, in conversations, using clues from the overall context to infer a new word’s meaning. But how early does this ability become...

A Northwestern University-led international team of scientists has, for the first time, directly observed catalysis in-action at the atomic level. In mesmerizing new videos, single atoms move and shake during a chemical reaction that removes hydrogen atoms from an alcohol molecule....

Experimental drug NU-9 — a small molecule compound approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for clinical trials for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) — improves neuron health in animal models of Alzheimer’s disease, according to...