VistaGen Therapeutics, a biotechnology company in suburban San Francisco, has signed a deal to use human embryonic stem cell patents from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.
VistaGen, which is located in South San Francisco, Calif., will use the license to accelerate its commercial programs focused on using stem cells as next-generation tools for predictive toxicology and drug discovery screenings.
Condoms are not 99 percent effective in preventing pregnancy, but that’s what half the women surveyed thought in a study done by researchers at the Department of Family Medicine at UW-Madison.
The survey was done of 252 women at two family practice clinics, with the results published in the latest issue of the Wisconsin Medical Journal.
UW-Madison stem cell pioneer Jamie Thomson received the prestigious Massry Prize for 2008.
The award recognizes Thomson, who is director of regenerative biology at the Morgridge Institute for Research and a professor at UW-Madison’s School of Medicine and Public Health, for his groundbreaking discovery of human embryonic stem ES cells a decade ago, and his subsequent work in developing induced pluripotent stem iPS cells.
Eight previous winners of the Massry Prize have gone on to receive the Nobel Prize.
More people than ever have been calling the Wisconsin Tobacco Quit Line. Dr. Michael Fiore, with the UW Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention, says about 39,000 smokers contacted the service, which provides them with help in kicking the habit. That’s four times more than the Quit Line has received in any year since it was launched seven years ago.
A researcher from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Medicine and Public Health has been selected to help build a computer as flexible, complex, and small as a small mammal’s brain.
The economy is getting intensive care from Uncle Sam these days, but who’s going to help the state’s ailing hospitals?
Hospital revenues are falling while requests for charity care are soaring. The resulting financial squeeze has left growing numbers of Wisconsin hospitals demanding more federal relief as they contemplate drastic interim measures ranging from freezing equipment purchases and expansion plans to laying off staff, according to a report released Thursday by the Wisconsin Hospitals Association.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plans to declare Dane County out of compliance with air quality standards for fine particle pollution Thursday, according to Dave Merritt of the Dane County Clean Air Coalition.
An EPA spokeswoman would not confirm the designation, but said an announcement will not come until early next week.
Thank mice and a bunch of scientists for forging a path that may one day soon lead to new hope and treatment for the millions of Americans who suffer permanent damage from heart attacks.
A team of researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Cornell University used genetically engineered mice to pinpoint a molecular culprit in the formation of scars after heart attacks. This scarring frequently prevents the organ’s muscles from working well even long after a heart attack.
The University of Wisconsin Madison’s infertility program will be moving into a new clinic in Middleton in 2010. Generations Fertility Care, the planned new 15,000-square-foot facility, will be built near the intersection of Highway 14 and the Beltline, next to Transformations, UW’s plastic and cosmetic surgery clinic.
Madison (WKOW) — UW Health Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility (REI) will open a new clinic with the latest programs and technology to help infertile couples overcome the challenges of conceiving a child.
On top of Christmas, snow, a bad economy and flu season, UW-Madison students have one more slightly stressful thing starting Sunday: finals week.
Feeling overwhelmed?
University Health Services (UHS) put together a list of stress-reducing tips, ranging from simple exercises to free counseling sessions to students who need some help, during the final, hectic week of the first semester.
After winning last month’s elections and becoming the ruling party in the State Capitol for the first time since 1986, Democrats should be full of post-election glee and seasonal joy. But the economy is tanking and state Dems are more likely to be greeting this New Year with calculators than champagne as they glumly try to figure out how to deliver on promised reforms in the midst of a financial mess.
A central question during caucuses this week will undoubtedly be the fate of a glittering array of health-related measures touted on the campaign trail.
In what researchers hail as promising news in the quest to slow the deadly progression of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, popularly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have been able to prolong the lives of afflicted mice by equipping them with an extra gene that prompts production of a substance that temporarily blocks the disease.
Quoted: Lori Hilt, a clinical psychology intern at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studied the issue when she was at Yale University.
Wisconsin’s famous milk and cows now might provide a wonderful new health benefit. University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers will be looking into whether milk produced by genetically engineered cows can prevent the rejection of transplanted kidneys.
Noted: The University of Wisconsin’s School of Medicine and Public Health is now planning to adopt a policy of public disclosure in which signs posted in the medical center will state that some of their physicians receive outside compensation from various sources, and that the companies and amounts will be available to patients on a public Web site.
Multiple attacks began rocking Mumbia, India midday Wednesday, Central US time. Shortly after, UW oncology professor Dr. Soren Bentzen received a voicemail from his wife, asking him to think twice before catching a plane for a conference of the Association of Radiation Oncologists of India.
Dec. 1 marks the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day.
According to Wisconsin’s Department of Health Services, recent estimates for the U.S. indicate that the HIV epidemic is much larger than previously assumed and that it is growing at alarming rates among certain individuals and communities.
Currently, the state has reached an all-time high with more than 6,500 people assumed to be living with HIV/AIDS in Wisconsin.
HIV has always been a part of UW student Ashlin Ware’s life.
MADISON â?? For people who suffer from epilepsy, current drugs donâ??t always control seizures. A startup company with ties to UW-Madison technology, NeuroGenomex Inc., is trying to provide a breakthrough medication.
Epilepsy affects more than 3 million Americans every year, with most new cases developing in children and elderly. Epilepsy is a central nervous system disorder whose main symptom is seizure caused by electric activity in the brain.
The U.S. health care system is in a state of crisis. Costs continue to rise astronomically, the public health workforce will soon be unable to keep up with growing demands, over fifty million Americans lack health insurance, and another 25 million are underinsured.
Health care must be seen as a human right, not a luxury. I support the American Nurses Association position that Americans are entitled to ready access to quality and affordable health care services offered by an adequately sized and well educated workforce.
Author: Katharyn May is the Dean of the UW-Madison School of Nursing.
The epidemic that sickened more than 100 University of Wisconsin students has been identified as the highly contagious norovirus, officials said Friday.
Quoted: Dr. Bruce Slaughenhoupt, assistant professor of urology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said doctors there once saw two children a month for kidney stones. Now they’re seeing at least one a week.
This could be the next tool in the battle against alcoholism.
” I don’t think it’s limited to alcoholism or even addiction.”
For five years Andrew Isham and his team of researchers at the UW have been developing Innovations for Recovery.
” What we are trying to do here is facilitate timely connections between the patient and people who they have determined to be in their support system.”
Norovirus has caused an outbreak of diarrhea-causing illness that has sickened at least 140 students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison this month, a health official said Thursday.
Dear Editor:
As an orthopedic surgeon and former longtime team physician for Madison West and La Follette high schools, I am extremely pleased to see the cautious attitude of the physicians and trainers for the University of Wisconsin athletic programs now taken with their head-injured athletes.
The surgical removal of small colon polyps found during computed tomography imaging of the colon, or CT colonography, is costly and unnecessary, according to a new study.
“We shouldn’t aggressively pursue sub-centimeter lesions, since the costs, risks, and inconvenience of the subsequent colonoscopy outweighs the clinical importance of these small polyps,” Dr. Perry J. Pickhardt from University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison told Reuters Health. “Over time, the few small polyps that matter will declare themselves by showing interval growth,” the researcher added.
When it comes to alcohol abuse in Wisconsin, it’s not just a health or legal issue anymore. It’s an economic one.
Alcohol-related health and social problems cost the state a staggering $5 billion annually, according to the University of Wisconsin’s School of Medicine and Public Health, which is starting a statewide campaign to combat Wisconsin’s problems with alcohol.
WAUSAU â?? Southeast Wisconsin is home to some of the stateâ??s healthiest â?? and least healthy â?? people, according to a University of Wisconsin-Madison study released today.
It showed that Milwaukee is one of the unhealthiest places to live in Wisconsin, while suburban Ozaukee and Waukesha counties are among the healthiest.
Southeast Wisconsin is home to some of the state’s healthiest â?? and least healthy â?? people, according to a University of Wisconsin-Madison study released today.
It showed that Milwaukee is one of the unhealthiest places to live in Wisconsin, while suburban Ozaukee and Waukesha counties are among the healthiest. Dodge County’s health ranks right in the middle, 38th out of 72 counties.
A number of Wisconsin doctors have gotten together to try to do something about what they consider an “epidemic” in the state, drinking.
Were you aware you could take your kids to a bar in Wisconsin and buy them a drink? As long as the bartender doesn’t object, there’s no law against it.
Doctor Lee Faucher, director of trauma at the University of Wisconsin Hospital, says they want to change laws and educate the public. (Audio.)
Dane County and neighboring Iowa County remain among the healthiest counties in Wisconsin, according to an annual report released today by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Population Health Institute.
A University of Wisconsin research team will be joining the annual deer hunt — to look for ticks that spread Lyme disease.
More than a dozen scientists led by UW-Madison entomologist Susan Paskewitz will head to selected Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources deer registration stations Saturday to collect deer ticks from carcasses brought in by hunters.
It’s part of a fight against Lyme disease, which is caused by a bacterium that can be carried by deer ticks that bite people.
WAUSAU â?? Southeast Wisconsin is home to some of the state’s healthiest â?? and least healthy â?? people, according to a University of Wisconsin-Madison study released today.
A new report ranks the health of Wisconsin counties.
The report from the UW Population Health Institute looked at the overall health of all 72 Wisconsin counties. Ozaukee County claimed the top spot, while Menominee County ranked last.
Dr. Patrick Remington says there are large gaps in quality statewide, with many communities continuously ranking near the bottom of the list. He says the report is intended to draw attention to the many disparities across the state.
You’ve probably never heard of Lemierre’s syndrome. Many doctors haven’t heard of it either, and that can be a problem. A century ago, Lemierre’s syndrome all too frequently led to small unmarked stones in graveyards. And then, thanks to antibiotics, it practically disappeared. But Lemierre’s may be making a comeback, a possible unintentional result of the push to reduce antibiotic prescriptions.
Researchers at American Family Children’s Hospital in Madison are working on finding a cure to the disease.
Dr. Mary Schroth is currently treating 60 children with spinal muscular atrophy at the hospital. She is also leading the research on drugs to help build strength and said that she thinks three drugs show great promise. Clinical trials on those medications are underway.
Generations Fertility Care is the name of UW Hospital’s new fertility clinic, which will open it’s doors in 2010 on the city’s far west side.
The announcement, made on Tuesday night, is a new page for a department that has suffered public embarrassment over physician feuding in recent years.
Quoted: Kidney stones in kids are one the rise, for the past 5 to 7 years, according to a pediatrician. Bruce Slaughenhoupt, UW Assistant Professor of Urology, says in the past decade the average age of children they’ve seen develop the condition is 10-years-old.
UW Hospital will make a big announcement on Tuesday.
Hospital officials will unveil plans for the first local couples fertility clinic during a community talk scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Courtyard Marriott Hotel in Middleton.
The announcement will include the location of the clinic, features along with innovations in fertility.
UW-Madison physiology professor Kevin Strang gave a presentation on â??The Science of Drinkingâ? Friday as part of the Wisconsin Alumni Associationâ??s First-Year Parentsâ?? Weekend.
Just as an outbreak of one type of gastrointestinal illness in Dane County seems to be declining, another is on the rise – among UW-Madison students.
More than 100 students have been reported ill the past week with vomiting and diarrhea in an outbreak thought to be caused by norovirus, Dr. Sarah Van Orman, executive director of University Health Services, said Friday.
When it comes to drinking, it seems, no state keeps pace with Wisconsin. This state, long famous for its breweries, has led the nation in binge drinking in every year since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began its surveys on the problem more than a decade ago. Binge drinking is defined as five drinks in a sitting for a man, four for a woman.
Now some Wisconsin health officials and civic leaders are calling for the state to sober up. A coalition called All-Wisconsin Alcohol Risk Education started a campaign last week to push for tougher drunken driving laws, an increase in screening for alcohol abuse at health clinics and a greater awareness of drinking problems generally.
The group, led by the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, criticized the state as having lenient alcohol laws and assailed a mindset that accepts, even celebrates, getting drunk.
â??Our goal is to dramatically change the laws, culture and behaviors in Wisconsin,â? said Dr. Robert N. Golden, the dean of the medical school, calling the state â??an island of excessive consumption.â? He said state agencies would use a $12.6 million federal grant to step up screening, intervention and referral services at 20 locations around Wisconsin.
The challenge of alcohol abuse will be met head-on by a new coalition announced Thursday by Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk.
The Dane County Coalition to Reduce Alcohol Abuse includes more than five dozen community leaders, physicians, politicians and citizens, working to significantly reduce alcohol abuse and its effects on the community.
(Dr. Robert Golden, dean of the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, is a member of the coalition.)
Few issues are likely to generate more emotional opposition than federal funding of stem cell research. Handled wrongly, it could energize conservative opponents and derail Barack Obama’s presidency. There is no question that we must move ahead, but caution is key.
MADISON, Wis. — Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk is spearheading a new local effort to try to change what she calls the “culture of drinking.”
Falk is pushing a new $50,000 citizen coalition. It is part of her budget plan for next year, which lays out $275,000 to target some of the core issues involved with alcohol abuse.
People of all different backgrounds are coming together in Dane County to help fight alcohol abuse. As NBC 15’s Michelle Riell reports:for many, the fight being led by County Executive Kathleen Falk, is personal.
Dr. Lee Faucher says, “Over the past few years, a tremendous number of people have died in this state from alcohol related crashes where their blood alcohol has been above the legal limit, that’s like losing that town of Waunakee. just from alcohol.” Dr. Faucher is the director of trauma at U-W Hospital work to save the lives of people involved in alcohol related crashes.
Local vaccine research and development firm FluGen Inc. is getting a $250,000 loan from the state to help in the development of a bird flu vaccine. Gov. Jim Doyle announced the Technology Venture Fund loan to FluGen on Wednesday.
(UW-Madison professor of virology Yoshi Kawaoka was a co-founder of FluGen, along with Gabriele Neumann, an associate scientist at the School of Veterinary Medicine)
Quoted: “These findings confirm some of our big picture concerns about childhood obesity,” said Aaron Carrel, an associate professor of paediatrics at the University of Wisconsin school of medicine and public health. “It is a very direct link with disease.”
Quoted: “This is now the second study that was unable to show a beneficial effect,” said Dr. James Stein, director of preventive cardiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who had no role in the research.
Quoted: Dr. Maryl Johnson of the University of Wisconsin-Madison said women who have been pregnant have slightly worse outcomes from transplants because their immune systems have been “revved up” from carrying foreign genes from their partner through the fetus.
State Consumer Protection is getting word out of a door-to-door scam involving people selling books in which the sales supposedly benefit UW hospital. Glen Lloyd, WI Trade and Consumer Protection Spokesman, says the hospital is not affiliated with any door-to-door crew. The swindlers have also attempted to get inside the home. He says the crew may ask to use the bathroom or come in for a glass of water. There’s been a report of a member smelling like alcohol.
UW Health officials have unveiled AWARE: All Wisconsin Alcohol Risk Education. Still think Wisconsin doesn’t have a drinking problem? Check out some numbers. Dr. Jeff Grossman is president and CEO of the UW Medical Foundation. “In 2005, underage drinkers consumed almost 17 percent of all alcohol consumed in Wisconsin, for a total of nearly $500 million,” Grossman said a Capitol press conference on Tuesday, where Grossman noted that Wisconsin leads the nation in rates of drinking by high school students.
UW Health announced Tuesday the launch of AWARE, a statewide coalition to combat Wisconsinâ??s alcohol abuse problem.
The All-Wisconsin Alcohol Risk Education project was initiated by UW Health in response to statistics that place Wisconsin number one in the nation for binge drinking and drinking by high school students, but showâ??s the state trails in penalties for drunken driving.
Representatives from University of Wisconsin Health announced Tuesday the formation of a coalition aimed at increasing public awareness of alcohol abuse in Wisconsin and supporting legislation to promote responsible alcohol use.
State consumer protection officials are warning of a local door-to-door sales scam touting $20 books purportedly being sold to benefit the UW Hospital.
An out-of-state crew is apparently canvassing neighborhoods in Wisconsin including areas of Middleton and Madison, claiming they are UW students or just live down the street and also apparently using names of residents as ones who’ve purchased the books when in fact they haven’t.
University of Wisconsin health officials are cautioning students in dorms to wash their hands after using the bathroom and before preparing food after what’s being called the biggest outbreak of the norovirus on campus in the last 10 years.
Up to 40 students were sick last weekend with a norovirus, commonly referred to as stomach flu, with the outbreak basically confined to the sixth floor of Sellery Hall, a large high-rise dormitory that houses over 1,100 students on West Johnson Street.
UW Health Services epidemiologist Craig Roberts told The Capital Times the virus is extremely infectious and tends to be most common in confined living areas such as cruise ships, nursing homes or dormitories.
A proposal by a UW-Madison biochemist to create “stealth” drugs that hide inside cells until activated by a pathogen has received a $100,000 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Biochemist Ron Raines and his research group were awarded the funding through the foundation’s Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative.
As many as 30 students at UW-Madison have become sick with the norovirus.
Many of the students live in the Sellery dormitory.
A new coalition said Tuesday it would push to toughen Wisconsin’s lax drunken driving laws, try to force insurers to cover injuries in such accidents and battle underage drinking. We welcome this new group, which calls itself All-Wisconsin Alcohol Risk Education, to the fight. The Journal Sentinel continues to highlight the need every day on Page 1B as part of its “Wasted in Wisconsin” series.
The coalition, led by UW Health in Madison, is encouraging health care organizations, law enforcement, school groups and advocacy groups to join with it to try to reduce the tragic results of excessive drinking.
MADISON â?? The sinking economy may push up an effort to strengthen Wisconsin’s drunken driving laws.
Robert Golden, dean of the University of Wisconsin’s School of Public Health, said the state’s alcohol problem has an economic cost to society, which burdens the public at a time when the economy is troubled.
