Sleep remains one of the brain’s biggest mysteries. No one really knows exactly why we need it.
But in an unusual experiment, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison were able to induce what appears to be deep sleep by sending bursts of magnetic energy through the skulls and into the brains of napping volunteers.
Jennifer Eddy vividly remembers the 79-year-old old man with foot ulcers so severely infected that his dried and deteriorated skin caused the loss of two toes.
Two surgeons urged amputation of the man’s lower legs to save his life, but the man opted to go home, and he then lost a third toe. Eddy, a family physician taught to never give up on a patient, approached the man with an idea she’d first heard about during medical school.
She told him that honey had been used since the early days to treat wounds and asked if he’d be willing to try it. The man agreed and placed a thick application of honey he’d purchased at a supermarket on his sore each day.
Within three weeks, Eddy says, the man’s foot began creating nice, healthy tissue. It took about a year for the ulcer to clear up.
The inaugural Tong Biomedical Engineering Design Award competition for students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison yielded devices designed for the use of radiologists, audiologists and those treating sports-related injuries.
All of the devices were designed by UW-Madison biomedical engineering students. The competition earlier this month at UW-Madison involved nearly 150 biomedical engineering students. First-place awards were given to teams from the sophomore, junior and senior classes.
THURSDAY, May 17 (HealthDay News) — The first national survey in a generation to look at Americans’ feelings on cancer prevention finds widespread confusion about the disease.
“We found that almost half of the American public believes that ‘it seems that almost everything causes cancer,’ about one in four feel there’s not much one can do to lower the chances of getting cancer, and three out of four felt there were so many recommendations, it’s hard to know which ones to follow,” said study author Jeff Niederdeppe, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholar at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Mary Troestler is excited and proud to be working with stem cells at Madison Area Technical College.
….MATC’s 20-year-old biotechnology program recently received human embryonic stem cells from WiCell through an agreement with the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation so students can learn lab techniques relating to the culture of stem cells.
UW-Madison may be known worldwide for stem-cell research, but the campus has lacked an organized way to get its stem-cell scientists to share lab equipment, train new researchers, educate the public and garner federal grants, campus authorities say.
Dear Editor:
….I have seen firsthand how for-profit business infiltrates academic medicine, to the point where many faculty at the medical school receive tens of thousands of dollars in “consulting” fees from medical industry, for a few hours of time each year. Our new medical school even has corporate names and logos at the entrances to our lecture halls.
….It is time that the UW, with a rich history of integrity and commitment to the public good, follows other universities and bans such compromising industrial ties. Wisconsin deserves more, and we need to lead by setting a more socially responsible example.
Quoted: Dr. Everett Smith, a biogerontologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Dear Editor: In his May 12 letter to the editor, Dr. James W. Tracy asserts that Dr. Yoshihiro Kawaoka has not worked with “live, infectious” 1918 Spanish flu virus on the Madison campus.
….In the spirit of transparency, the university should make available on its Web site all research protocols involving deadly airborne agents and explain the methods being used to contain them and safeguard the public’s health.
The ability to pay attention may not have a fixed capacity, as many people believe, says a UW-Madison study suggesting that meditation can improve people’s knack for focusing their minds.
A Madison stem cell start-up company will get a $1 million boost from the state, Gov. Jim Doyle announced this morning.
Top University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher Gabriela Cezar co-founded Stemina Biomarker Discovery Inc. in November with Beth Donley, the former executive director of WiCell, the stem cell subsidiary of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.
With the aid of two WARF stem cell patents, the company is developing ways to help drug manufacturers screen drugs for toxicity. The aim is to save millions of dollars in drug development costs by developing a library of biomarkers that discover toxins in the early stages of pharmaceutical development.
Quoted: Maureen Durkin, an autism researcher at UW-Madison’s Waisman Center.
Investors warmly welcomed TomoTherapy’s entrance onto Wall Street on Wednesday.
Shares of the Madison medical equipment manufacturer opened at $24 on the Nasdaq market under the symbol TTPY. That was 26 percent higher than the initial public offering price of $19 a share, which was already up from the estimated $15 to $17 price range when the registration was filed in February.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/conditions/05/09/vaccine.gardasil.reut/index.html
Quoted: Alta Charo, a bioethicist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
While meditation used to be for only devout Buddhists, it may be useful for everyday students, according to a recent study by UW- Madison professors and scientists. Released just in time for finals, the study indicates a link between meditation and the ability to focus attention in other aspects of life.
With finals just around the corner, a University of Wisconsin professor and researcher specializing in psychiatry discussed some of the mysteries surrounding sleep â?? and also its importance â?? on campus Tuesday.
TomoTherapy Inc. made a big splash today in its debut as a public company.
Even after adding shares and pricing above the previously set range of its initial public offering of stock, the Madison-based maker of cancer treatment systems (and UW-Madison spin-off) opened up about 25 percent as it launched on Nasdaq under the symbol “TTPY.”
Add hearing aids to the growing list of gadgets that can be recycled, refurbished and given to those in need.
In honor of Better Hearing and Speech Month this month, the Sertoma Club and UW-Madison’s Department of Communicative Disorders are teaming up to collect used hearing aids, recondition them and then get low-cost aids to those who can’t afford new ones.
Does Governor Doyle’s plan to expand health care coverage have support from people in the medical field?
There were some prominent people from the health care industry on hand to hear Doyle’s speech on Thursday. We spoke with two deans from UW-Madison and the CEO of Gundersen Lutheran and heard a lot of support for Doyle’s plan.
The California-based group challenging the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation’s stem cell patents wants WARF managing director Carl Gulbrandsen to step down from a U.S. Patent Public Advisory Committee until the case is settled.
Gulbrandsen was appointed in 2005 as one of 12 members of the committee, which advises the patent office on matters of administration, policy and budget. Another 12-member panel advises the government on trademark issues.
Dalai Lama good, mad cow disease bad.
In a nutshell, that’s the way Dunn Town Chairman Ed Minihan described his day on Thursday, welcoming the Tibetan spiritual and political leader to the Deer Park Buddhist Center before following the Dane County Board’s vote against locating a $400 million national biological and agricultural defense facility at the University of Wisconsin’s Kegonsa Research Facility.
Gundersen Lutheran and the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health will form a new partnership in the fall in which medical students will spend more time learning primary care in rural areas.
In their third and fourth year, UW medical students interested in rural primary care will work at Gundersen clinics in such Wisconsin communities as Viroqua, Prairie du Chien, Whitehall, Sparta and Tomah. Five medical students will enter the Wisconsin Academy of Rural Medicine program at Gundersen Lutheran in the fall, which will be expanded to 25 students a year.
Itâ??s a bright Monday morning in the town of Dunn, warm but windy. The sun shimmers on the surface of Lake Kegonsa in the distance and on the hoods of a stream of cars being parked along the shoulder of Schneider Road.
Citing studies showing gaps in health care for Wisconsin’s farmers, a group that has looked at the state’s rural life for the last two years is calling for a summit on access to affordable health care.
Dear Editor: I recently learned about the University of Wisconsin’s plan to commit $11.4 million to building a laboratory for Dr. Yoshihiro Kawaoka, a UW faculty member and one of the world’s leading viral researchers. Dr. Kawaoka intends to study the 1918 Spanish flu, which essentially was extinct before he and his colleagues revived it, and the Ebola virus, in his new state-of-the-art facility.
Perusing the minutes of the 2005 UW Biosafety Committee meetings, in which Dr. Kawaoka was granted approval to study these two deadly diseases in his current lab, I see that the committee expressed substantial safety concerns.
Experiments with mice have shown that mental stimulation and drug treatment may help people with Alzheimer’s disease regain memories.
(Quoted: Sanjay Asthana, a UW-Madison geriatric research expert)
Don Hedberg, retired co-owner of Lab Safety Supply Co., has made a $2 million gift that will name UW-Madison’s new HealthEmotions Research Institute building.
Today, Regulation and Licensing Secretary Celia Jackson and about 200 midwives are expected to gather at Ebling Library Health Sciences Learning Center at UW Hospital to celebrate; Gov. Jim Doyle has declared May 5 “International Midwives’ Day” in Wisconsin.
A University of Wisconsin chemist and her team have discovered a method for identifying new useful compounds for developing antibiotics, and a national science journal recognized the groupâ??s findings Friday.
For sheer drama, there have been few more memorable Professional Golf Association Tour matches in recent years than Tiger Woods’ sudden-death playoff victory over John Daly in the October 2005 American Express Championship at San Francisco’s Harding Park.
But for many environmentalists and golf course superintendents across the country, the event — which abruptly ended when the volatile Daly jerked a 3-foot putt on the second playoff hole — was notable for one other reason: Harding Park, which is a public course, has been hailed as an environmental model because, in addition to its jaw-dropping beauty, it uses far fewer pesticides than any PGA course in the country.
(Quoted: UW-Madison associate professor of horticulture John Stier. Zoology professor Warren Porter is also mentioned.)
One thing is certain, the technology known as CIMT (Carotid Intima-Media Thickness) has established a thriving foothold among University of Wisconsin-Madison cardiologists who have become national gurus of the appealing technology. And thanks to a $300,000 grant they received earlier this month, they are about to start teaching the technique to family practice doctors and staff in several Wisconsin cities.
The medical research company hired by the federal government four years ago to update its list of carcinogens moved quickly to add a virus to the list while two of its clients were developing vaccines to combat that same virus.
MADISON, Wis. — Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison said they are excited about an inflection-fighting breakthrough that shows promise in the fight against antibiotic resistance.
Dr. Helen Blackwell, assistant professor of chemistry at UW-Madison, and her graduate students have been working to find a new way to fight bacteria that are becoming increasingly resistant to drugs.
“There is an urgent need to develop new anti-bacterial agents,” Blackwell said.
The Wisconsin Women’s Health Foundation will hold its annual Champions in Women’s Health Awards program tonight, honoring nine people whose work has had a positive impact on women’s health issues.
….This marks the sixth year the foundation has handed out the awards, designed to honor individuals who have demonstrated extraordinary leadership in women’s health issues.
(Dr. Eberhard A. Mack, a professor of surgery at UW-Madison, will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award.)
No date has been set, but TomoTherapy’s initial public offering of stock could be drawing near.
The Madison-based tech company on Thursday filed an amended registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission indicating that it could raise up to $213 million in its IPO. The company has applied to be listed on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol “TTPY.”
TomoTherapy says its “Hi-Art” cancer treatment system precisely delivers radiation with sub-millimeter accuracy to kill cancer cells while reducing radiation exposure to surrounding healthy tissue.
A community-based intervention designed to address multiple factors that put elderly people at increased risk for falling and injuring themselves has proven ineffective. There was no decrease in the number of falls in “at-risk” elderly individuals who completed the program.
Falls are a significant source of illness and death for older adults, Dr. Jane E. Mahoney, of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and colleagues note in a report
A prominent retired Wisconsin businessman donated $2 million toward a new research facility, the University of Wisconsin announced Wednesday.
Quoted: Dr. James Stein, of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public
Health.
A cutting-edge technology called “virtual colonoscopy” promises fewer complications and better cost-effectiveness than traditional colonoscopy, researchers report.
These technologies have been compared before, but the current analysis relies on the notion that identifying and removing polyps smaller than 6 millimeters won’t do much to reduce colorectal cancer cases.
“Because there’s virtually no risk associated with having such small polyps, 90 percent of folks don’t need an invasive and expensive colonoscopy to screen for colon cancer,” explained lead researcher Dr. Perry J. Pickhardt, an associate professor in the school of medicine and public health and radiologist at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.
Every year, there are one or two UW-Madison students whose behavior or psychological state raises serious concern among university officials.
“I don’t want to alarm anybody, but it’s not just a ‘very rare’ thing,” said Elton Crim, UW-Madison’s associate dean of students.
Members of Universities Allied for Essential Medicines rallied Friday afternoon on Library Mall, informing students about the need for universities to increase availability of university-innovated drugs for developing countries, namely those directly controlled by the University of Wisconsin.
What does UW-Madison do to help students with mental health problems, and how much authority do university officials have to deal with those who may become a danger?
Those are questions on many people’s minds after a mentally troubled student killed 32 others and himself on the Virginia Tech campus Monday.
The University of Wisconsin has a three-pronged system aimed at helping students resolve problems before they become serious.
Madison bartenders are doing less coughing and wheezing since the July 2005 city smoking ban came into effect, according to the findings of a recent respiratory health study by UW-Madison researchers.
“Sex Out Loud,” a UW-Madison student group promoting open discussion of sex and sexuality, gave credence to its name by hosting a candid discussion of public sex education on the UW-Madison campus Monday night.
“One of Sex Out Loud’s’ main goals is to promote healthy sexuality through a variety of different methods,” said Emily Shor, UW-Madison senior and “Sex Out Loud” outreach coordinator. “We are basically trying to provide sex education to make sure people know how to be safe and happy at the same time.”
Stem cells get the publicity, but the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation’s cash cow continues to be vitamin D.
The bone-enhancing nutrient used in fortified milk and several drugs brings in about two- thirds of the money at WARF, UW-Madison’s tech transfer arm.
MADISON, Wis. — Area welders are taking more precautions amid emerging research into a potential link between welding and Parkinson’s disease.
Dr. Erwin Montgomery, a neurologist at University of Wisconsin-Madison, said that scientists know that manganese might be an environmental trigger to Parkinson’s disease.
A report meant to shine the spotlight on Dane County’s high-tech economy shows that technology jobs increased in the Madison area by 5.5 percent from 2005 to 2006.
The 2007 Greater Madison Wisconsin Area Directory of High-Tech Companies, released this week, lists about 500 technology firms with combined revenues of $5.5 billion.
The last time I had been in the clinic was for my Hepatitis-B vaccine. I screamed so loudly I scared the kids in the waiting room. Now, six years later, the same nauseating feelings of pre-shot anxiety were rising in my throat.
Pollens are in the air, and a Wisconsin specialist warns that this allergy season may be one of the longest in recent memory.
Doctor Mark Moss of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health says the season began about two to three weeks ahead of schedule in the state this year.
More women could someday decide whether to learn even more about their genetic risk for breast cancer, thanks to new research at UW-Madison.
More women could someday decide whether to learn even more about their genetic risk for breast cancer, thanks to new research at UW-Madison.
WASHINGTON — University of Wisconsin scientists are strongly backing a measure set for Senate debate next week that would override President Bush’s restrictions on stem cell research funding.
It would allow researchers to use embryos that would otherwise be discarded from fertility clinics.
“We feel that (the bill) will open up new avenues of this research,” said Andy Cohn, spokesman for the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.
Quoted: Walter Hopkins, a scientist in the Division of Urology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
Work as a scientific researcher means living a life that is full of questions, and being spurred by discoveries that reveal themselves in small increments.
The adventure is about knowing when to change directions, because the plotted route will be full of surprises and often in need of revisions. The reward is finding an answer to something that no one else knows, and being able to prove it, perhaps after years of experiments in uncharted territory.
Flu viruses with reduced sensitivity to drugs intended to prevent or limit infection have been found in patients not previously treated with these drugs, according to an international research team led by a UW-Madison researcher.
The emergence of drug-resistant influenza spreading by human-to-human contact was documented in a study of Japanese patients. University of Wisconsin virologist Yoshihiro Kawaoka was the lead author of a report on the findings in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison ranked about the same as last year in several of the U.S. News & World Report graduate school rankings for 2007.
The newly published issue of America’s Best Graduate Schools also includes ratings done in previous years, however, which raised UW’s overall prestige.
The U.S. Congress is facing a critical funding decision in the near future, with dramatic implications for the well-being of the countryâ??and we are not talking about the Iraq War.
Men’s Health magazine has chosen three University of Wisconsin Hospital & Clinics doctors as being among the “Top Doctors for Men” regionally and nationally.
The first such listing by the magazine, in the April issue, names sports medicine surgeon Ben Graf, gastroenterologist Mark Reichelderfer and cardiologist James Stein as among the top 20 in each of their fields.
In women newly diagnosed with cancer in one breast, an MRI can find the disease in the opposite breast more effectively than standard mammography or clinical examination, scientists said Tuesday.
MRI, which stands for magnetic resonance imaging, detected cancers that had been missed by the other methods in 3.1 percent of patients in a large clinical study, researchers said.
Quoted: Frederick Kelcz, a professor of radiology at UW-Madison
UW-Madison has approved a new research entity, the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research.
