Véronique LaCapra

Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster announced a preliminary agreement on Tuesday with the owner of the Bridgeton Landfill.

In separate studies both published on Wednesday, researchers at Washington University helped lead the genomic analysis of two types of cancer.

The EPA says a new round of dioxin sampling at Route 66 State Park confirms it poses no risk to park workers and visitors.

For the second year in a row, the March of Dimes has given Missouri a grade of “C” in its annual state rankings of premature birth rates. Factors including maternal smoking, lack of access to health care, and obesity are to blame.

The Director of Newborn Medicine at St. Louis Children's Hospital, Dr. F. Sessions Cole, calls preterm birth a major problem for our region.

The Saint Louis Zoo once again is teeming with baby giant salamanders.

For the second year in a row, the zoo has successfully bred endangered Ozark hellbenders in captivity.

A federal panel is calling for stronger privacy protections for human genetic data.

In a report out Thursday, the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues said “whole genome sequencing” — which provides a unique blueprint of each person’s DNA — holds great promise for advancing medical research and clinical care.

But the Commission said genetic data can also be misused and need to be adequately protected.

A national consortium of scientists has sequenced the genome of a common type of lung cancer. The work suggests that the key to treating cancer may lie in understanding its genes.

Washington University helped lead the study, which mapped and analyzed genetic mutations in squamous cell carcinoma of the lung.

The director of Wash U’s Genome Center, Richard Wilson, says the study identified mutations in lung tumors that are also found in other types of cancer.

He says the work suggests the genetics of cancer are more important than where it first appears in the body.

When the US Supreme Court upheld the federal health care law in June, it ruled that states couldn’t be penalized for failing to expand their Medicaid programs.

Soil bacteria may be helping to make disease-causing bacteria resistant to antibiotics.

That’s according to a new study out of Washington University.

Lead researcher, microbiologist Gautam Dantas, says he and his colleagues found seven genes in farmland soil bacteria that are identical to genes in human pathogens – and that provide resistance to a wide range of antibiotics.

A federal appeals court has overturned a federal rule that would have reduced air pollution from power plants and kept it from drifting across state lines.

In a 2-to-1 decision, the panel of judges said the Environmental Protection Agency exceeded its regulatory authority when it approved the Cross-State Air Pollution rule last summer.

Sierra Club Missouri Chapter Director John Hickey says the rule would have reduced emissions of soot, sulfur dioxide, and other pollutants that drift from state to state.