Author: jplucas

The program, funded by a UW School of Medicine and Public Health grant, is one of at least three efforts in the Madison area to study kids’ fitness levels. The programs also teach kids that being active doesn’t have to be limited to the dodge ball and floor hockey games their parents remember from school.

What happens when a rat stops dreaming? In 2004, researchers at the University of Wisconsin at Madison decided to find out. Their method was simple, if a bit devilish. Step 1: Strand a rat in a tub of water. In the center of this tiny sea, allot the creature its own little desert island in the form of an inverted flowerpot. The rat can swim around as much as it pleases, but come nightfall, if it wants any sleep, it has to clamber up and stretch itself across the flowerpot, its belly sagging over the drainage hole.

In this uncomfortable position, the rat is able to rest and eventually fall asleep. But as soon as the animal hits REM sleep, the muscular paralysis that accompanies this stage of vivid dreaming causes its body to slacken. The rat slips through the hole and gets dunked in the water. The surprised rat is then free to crawl back onto the pot, lick the drops off its paws, and go back to sleepâ??but it won’t get any REM sleep.

Laura Kiessling works at the forefront of a promising new movement in science. At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she builds synthetic molecules that imitate those in nature and influence cell behavior in fundamental ways.

Her research has suggested new strategies for targeting tumors, fighting tuberculosis and bolstering the body’s response to infection.

Time magazine has proclaimed Vladimir Putin its Person of the Year. Which leads us to ponder, as we start a new year, who might deserve that title for Wisconsin for the year just ending.

James Thomson: Already a stem cell pioneer, the University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher led a team that succeeded in reprogramming human skin cells to act like embryonic stem cells. A separate Japanese team did the same thing.

In a Nov. 21 article, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter John Fauber explained why this is significant: “If these new cells truly have all the beneficial qualities of embryonic stem cells without hidden hazards, it could pave the way to therapies that do not raise the moral concerns associated with the destruction of embryos or therapeutic cloning. At the same time, the new approach could avoid problems of immune rejection because the cells could be matched to the DNA of the patient.”

Stem Cell Researchers Win Nobel: Researchers in Japan and the U.S. in 2007 announced they had found a way to turn regular human skin cells into the equivalent of embryonic stem cells. By activating a handful of dormant genes, teams led by Dr. Shinya Yamanaka at Japan’s Kyoto University and Dr. James Thompson at the University of Wisconsin were able to coax the cells back in time to a point in embryonic development before they’d committed to becoming a particular type of tissue.

The reprogrammed cells, known as “induced pluripotent stem cells,” genetically matched to the donor, could then be used to grow tissues for future use in tissue replacement therapies including a range of things from regeneration of damaged heart tissue to Parkinson’s to spinal-cord injury.

The discovery could provide a virtually unlimited supply of embryonic stem cells without the moral baggage of or need to use human embryos, cloning or human eggs. It also takes such research out of the political arena back into the realm of science, where it belongs.

“It’s a bit like learning how to turn lead into gold,” says Dr. Robert Lanza, a stem cell researcher at Advanced Cell Technology, a Massachusetts-based research firm. For this discovery, and the cures it will lead to, it should warrant the next Nobel Prize for Medicine.

It was the kind of breakthrough scientists had dreamed of for decades and its promise to help cure disease appears to be fast on the way to being realised.

Researchers in November announced they were able to turn the clock back on skin cells and transform them into stem cells, the mutable building blocks of organs and tissues.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — If one of your New Years’ resolutions is to quit smoking, the state wants to help.

Starting today, people who call the state’s Tobacco Quit Line can get a free two-week starter kick of nicotine medicines.

The cost is being covered by the additional one-dollar-per-pack tax that went into effect today.

Dr. Michael Fiore is the Director of the University of Wisconsin Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention in Madison. He says the best way to quit is to plan for it, follow the steps and use the treatment.

Two of the most significant science events of 2007 occurred within the space of a fortnight. The first was when scientists announced that they had been able to clone dozens of embryos from an adult monkey â?? a technical feat that had eluded researchers since the announcement on cloning Dolly the sheep back in 1997. The second breakthrough happened when researchers showed that it was possible to convert human skin cells into the equivalent of embryonic stem cells, which could then be used to make beating heart-muscle and brain cells in the test tube.

CHICAGO (AFP) â?? It was the kind of breakthrough scientists had dreamed of for decades and its promise to help cure disease appears to be fast on the way to being realized.

Researchers in November announced they were able to turn the clock back on skin cells and transform them into stem cells, the mutable building blocks of organs and tissues.

Then just earlier this month a different team announced it had cured sickle cell anemia in mice using stem cells derived from adult mouse skin.