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Category: Research

Scientists just watched these entities rapidly evolve in Space. They could save our lives

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Popular Science

To fill in this knowledge gap, the research team (led by scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison) analyzed two bacterial samples of Escherichia coli (E. coli)—one located on Earth, the other on the ISS, and both infected with what is known as a T7 bacteriophage. Eventually, they found that while the outcome of the arms race remained the same in each location—the bacteriophage eventually infected its bacterial prey—there were distinct differences in how this battle played out between the two samples.

“Space fundamentally changes how phages and bacteria interact: infection is slowed, and both organisms evolve along a different trajectory than they do on Earth,” the authors wrote. “By studying those space-driven adaptations, we identified new biological insights that allowed us to engineer phages with far superior activity against drug-resistant pathogens back on Earth.”

UW-Madison, Immuto partner to target new colorectal cancer treatments

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WKOW - Channel 27

The University of Wisconsin–Madison and Immuto Scientific have teamed up to explore new therapeutic targets in colorectal cancer. According to the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, this collaboration aims to use Immuto’s AI-enabled platform to discover novel treatments for solid colorectal cancer tumors.

Dr. Dustin Deming, a professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, leads the project. “Our collection of patient-derived colorectal cancer organoids enables exploration of tumor biology and therapeutic vulnerabilities in ways that traditional models cannot,” said Deming.

Wisconsin researchers lead natural food coloring breakthrough as industry phases out artificial dyes

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WMTV - Channel 15

Within UW-Madison’s Department of Food Science, Professor Bradley Bolling has pioneered research of anthocyanins, natural pigments responsible for the vibrant hues in fruits like cranberries.

“We want to understand how the pigments in cranberry are stabilized,” Bolling said.

Bolling developed a patented process using lecithin, an emulsifier, to extract natural pigments from cranberries without using alcohol or acetone. This makes the process safer and more environmentally sustainable.

How NIH ending funding for human fetal tissue research could affect studies

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ABC News

Dr. Anita Bhattacharyya, an associate professor of cell and regenerative biology in the school of medicine and public health at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said she was hoping to apply for a future NIH grant to study human fetal tissue research and will now not be able to do so.

Bhattacharyya explained she currently uses human-induced pluripotent stem cells, which are reprogrammed cells that are similar to embryonic stem cells, in her work. However, the loss of NIH funding for human fetal tissue research could affect future work.

“My reaction was, ‘How are we going to do some of our research if we can no longer use human fetal tissue?'” she recalled to ABC News. “In particular, my lab studies Down syndrome and so we know that in Down syndrome, the brain develops differently to lead to the intellectual disability that people with Down syndrome have.”

Lost ancient Greek star catalog decoded by particle accelerator

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Scientific American

Some analysis will have to wait until the new images can be processed, but the researchers are already able to decode text from many of the raw data. “It’s one of the rare examples in research where you know very quickly that you have gotten good results,” says Uwe Bergmann, a physics professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, who is overseeing the experiment’s x-ray scanning.

Bill threatens UW research, study abroad programs in 6 countries

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The Daily Cardinal

Wisconsin Republican lawmakers want to limit the University of Wisconsin System’s academic and research collaboration with six countries amid concerns over national security and foreign influence in education.

The bill, which passed the Assembly on Jan. 22, prohibits study abroad, dual degree programs and research collaborations with China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela and Qatar. While there are currently no UW-Madison programs in four of the targeted countries, the university has three study abroad programs in China and one flagship program in Russia.

How one UW-Madison lab improves sheep’s quality of life

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The Daily Cardinal

An assistant professor in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Department of Animal and Dairy Sciences wants to improve sheep’s quality of life.

Sarah Adcock focuses her research on the welfare of farm animals, including specializing in the docking of lamb tails, a routine procedure on farms that can lead to acute and sometimes even chronic pain for the animal.

UW-Madison’s new center for aging research studies metabolism, biology, genetics and more

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The Daily Cardinal

“We don’t have the fountain of youth— nobody ever found it,” said Dudley Lamming, co-director of the Wisconsin Nathan Shock Center (WiNSC) and professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, “but can we find ways [to] get to the end of our lives, still fit and functional?”

How I cracked the code on toddler screen time

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The Washington Post

“I am just a lot more concerned about how we design the digital landscape for kids than I am about whether we allow kids to use screens or not,” said Heather Kirkorian, an early childhood development researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “I haven’t seen concrete evidence that convinces me that screen use itself is creating problematic behavior.”

What animals can teach us about overcoming tyranny

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BBC

Some people refer to the muriqui as “the hippie monkey” – a slightly sensationalising term that nonetheless captures their “relaxed” lifestyle, says Karen Strier, a primatologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US, who has studied muriquis for decades. She mentions, for example, that the monkeys are, sexually speaking, very laid back. “Females mate with multiple males in close succession,” she says.

Aging Wisconsin: Wisconsin’s baby boomers are state’s fastest growing age range

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Wisconsin Public Radio

Demographer David Egan-Robertson kicked things off in an interview with “Wisconsin Today,” looking at the big trends in the state’s population. Egan-Robertson has followed this story for years in his work with the Applied Population Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Education has seen unprecedented changes in Trump’s second term

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Wisconsin Public Radio

Last year, just as she was finishing a teacher residency program through the University of Wisconsin-Madison, federal funding for the project was cut by the Trump administration.

“So we were in the spring semester and we were all like, are we going to be able to continue?” Lind said. “Are we going to still be able to get our teaching license? Are we going to have to pay this back?”

Could a drug slow aging? UW-Madison researchers seek answers in trial

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The Cap Times

University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers are studying whether a drug used for organ transplant patients could slow aging in humans.

Some compelling evidence in recent decades shows rapamycin — also known as sirolimus — can increase the quality and quantity of life in animals, said Adam Konopka, a UW-Madison assistant professor of geriatrics and gerontology.

“This got people really excited that maybe this drug could be used to improve human healthy longevity,” he said.

Why does chocolate turn white? It’s not mold.

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Popular Science

A few years ago, a small baker from the West Coast had a problem. A day or so after baking chocolate chip cookies, the chocolate chips would develop an unpleasant white haze. Confused, she reached out to Richard Hartel, a professor of food science at the University of Wisconsin.

Hartel studies foods like chocolate and ice cream, and he gets questions like this all the time. So what was going on with those chocolate chips?

Does the temperature affect the sound of snow underfoot?

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The Guardian

Canadians like to claim that they can tell the temperature outside by the sound the snow makes underfoot.

The topic has not been well studied, but researchers from the University of Wisconsin suggest that, at temperatures above -10C, the pressure of a foot causes a thin layer of snow to melt, producing a crunching sound as it compresses. Closer to zero, the sliding of grains becomes a squelch as the snow approaches the condition of slush, but as the temperature approaches -10C the snow becomes progressively crunchier.

What do police do at MPS? What records show about new program

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Research by Ben Fisher, a University of Wisconsin-Madison associate professor who reviewed 32 evaluations of school-based police programs, found some students say they feel safer with police in their buildings while others say a police presence makes students more attuned to a sense of danger and some see police as a source of violence.

5 UW professors reflect on the year when Trump upended federal research

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Avtar Roopra’s research has effectively stalled since President Donald Trump started his second term and upended the federal research funding landscape. Agencies have cut projects, delayed grant reviews, fired thousands of federal employees who offer guidance to researchers and reduced the number of new projects getting funding.

“This is like the Holy Grail of epilepsy, what we’ve been looking for for hundreds of years,” Roopra said. “All of it is on hold. It’s extremely frustrating.”

Space experiments reveal new way to fight drug-resistant superbugs, scientists say

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FOX News

Experiments by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison show that viruses and bacteria behave differently in near-weightless conditions. In space, they develop genetic changes not typically seen on Earth.

Lead study author Dr. Phil Huss, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, noted that interactions between viruses that infect bacteria — known as phages — and their hosts play an “integral” role in how microbial ecosystems function, per the SWSN report.

What UW-Madison researchers learned from an experiment in outer space

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The Cap Times

Vatsan Raman never expected he would send a research experiment to outer space.

“This is like a box that’s sitting on our lab bench one day, and the next day it’s on a rocket that’s going up to (the International Space Station). … It was really quite surreal,” said Raman, an associate professor of biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

UW-Madison research foundation seeks next ‘diamonds’ amid federal cuts

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The Cap Times

The organization is set to provide $206.9 million in total support to UW-Madison and the Morgridge Institute for Research this school year, including $50 million toward research projects and nearly $36 million for faculty, graduate students and staff.

Now in its second century, the nonprofit faces challenges, though. The Trump administration’s widespread cuts to federal research funding could limit the number of discoveries coming to WARF.

Viruses may be more powerful in the International Space Station’s microgravity environment

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Space

To better understand how microbes may act differently in space, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison studied bacteriophages — viruses that infect bacteria, also called phages — in identical settings both on the ISS and on Earth. Their results, published recently in the journal PLOS Biology, suggest that microgravity can delay infections, reshape evolution of both phages and bacteria and even reveal genetic combinations that may help the performance against disease-linked bacteria on Earth.

“Studying phage–bacteria systems in space isn’t just a curiosity for astrobiology; it’s a practical way to understand and anticipate how microbial ecosystems behave in spacecraft and to mine new solutions for phage therapy and microbiome engineering back home,” said Dr. Phil Huss, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and one of the study’s lead authors.

Twin brothers make “Money Magic:” UW professor & his financial adviser twin brother drop children’s book

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Madison 365

Quentin Riser pursued academia, earning a PhD and eventually joining the faculty at the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s School of Human Ecology, where he studies child development and family outcomes. Quinlan went into the financial world, spending nearly a decade at Principal Financial Group before becoming a financial advisor and later leading an insurance business.

“It’s designed to be a two-generational book,” Quentin Riser said. “The kids are going to ask their parents, ‘Mom, Dad, what is estate planning?’ And if the parents don’t know, they’re going to have to go look that up.”

Bill proposes funding one charter school as pilot to improve academic achievement

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

To prove whether its methods work, the demonstration school would be required to participate in longitudinal studies through the Wisconsin Center for Education Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The school must also share its practices with other schools.

A charter school would be eligible for the designation as a demonstration school only if it is authorized by the Universities of Wisconsin’s Office of Educational Opportunity, which would select the demonstration school. Wittke said lawmakers chose the Universities of Wisconsin as the sole authorizer because it already has the infrastructure to support new techniques and conduct studies through UW-Madison’s education department.

Even though they don’t have brains to rest, jellyfish and sea anemones sleep like humans

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Smithsonian Magazine

Chiara Cirelli, a neuroscientist who researches sleep at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who was not involved with the new work, tells Nature that she was impressed by the study. “Every time somebody adds to the list of species that sleep, it is a very important step for the field,” she says.

But, for comparison, she wishes the researchers had kept some of the creatures awake after inducing the DNA damage to their neurons. She wonders if similar DNA repairs might be taking place while the creatures are awake but not actively learning.

UW-Madison researchers using fruit flies to find potential treatment for incurable cancer

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have unlocked a potential new treatment to target an incurable form of childhood cancer with the help of a fast-reproducing pest known for swarming kitchen produce.

Professors Melissa Harrison and Peter Lewis used fruit flies to to study how cellular pathways are misregulated by a cancer-causing mutant protein. The pesky bugs were perfect lab subjects for the project because two-thirds of the cancer-causing genes in humans are shared by fruit flies.

UW-Madison researchers using fruit flies to find potential treatment for incurable cancer

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have unlocked a potential new treatment to target an incurable form of childhood cancer with the help of a fast-producing pest known for swarming kitchen produce.

Professors Melissa Harrison and Peter Lewis used fruit flies to to study how cellular pathways are misregulated by a cancer-causing mutant protein. The pesky bugs were perfect lab subjects for the project because two-thirds of the cancer-causing genes in humans are shared by fruit flies.

White students more likely to exit Madison schools via open enrollment

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The Cap Times

A University of Wisconsin-Madison class started the fall semester with a big question to tackle: Which families are opting not to enroll their children in the Madison school district, and why?

After a semester of conducting background research, analyzing data and reaching out directly to Madison families for interviews, one key finding was that nearly 1,600 middle and high school students open enrolled out of Madison schools into another public school district over the last three years — with white families being the most likely to leave.

Asthma puts too many kids in ER. Study explores tie to climate change.

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Better bike lanes, electric buses and more charging stations for electric cars – these are all ways cities can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate climate change.

But for those who think curbing the planet’s warming is a lofty goal, two Wisconsin researchers are trying to show how these actions can improve human health – and perhaps prevent Milwaukee residents from scoring worst in the nation in one key measure.

10 Universities of Wisconsin research projects notable in 2025, from AI to zebrafish

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Wisconsin State Journal

As uncertainty around federal funding for researchers at the Universities of Wisconsin is expected to continue into the new year, their new discoveries will, too.

From a new eco-friendly way to create plastic to meeting the person behind the state’s insect research, the findings across the UW system didn’t slow down in 2025.

Can fruit flies lead to new treatments for incurable childhood brain cancer?

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Wisconsin Public Radio

Using fruit flies, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are uncovering a new way to think about treating an aggressive and deadly form of childhood brain cancer.

By understanding how different proteins affect genetic mutations in the flies’ wings and eyes, the researchers say it could lead to new ways to silence genes behind the disease

For 1st time since 2014, UW-Madison research ranks in top five nationally

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The University of Wisconsin-Madison has reclaimed its status among the top five institutions nationally for research spending – the highest ranking the state flagship has earned since 2014.

UW-Madison’s national research ranking has been a sore spot on campus for a decade after the university fell out of the top five for the first time in nearly 45 years. It dropped to No. 8 in 2018. UW-Madison officials at the time attributed the slide in rankings to state budget cuts and the loss of senior faculty members.

What your life would be like without an inner voice

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BBC Science Focus

Nedergaard and her colleague Prof Gary Lupyan at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in the US, decided to explore the potential effects of lacking inner speech, recruiting people who scored low on a questionnaire with statements such as “I think about problems in my mind in the form of a conversation with myself.”

By coining the term ‘anendophasia’ – from the Greek an (lack), endo (inner) and phasia (speech) – Nedergaard and Lupyan hope to create a similar keyword that will help to catalyse research into those lacking inner speech.

Fight the urge to hibernate with these 9 indoor activities in the Madison area

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Wisconsin State Journal

UW-Madison’s Geology Museum

Glowing rocks, dinosaurs and meteorites await visitors to this free museum, offering visitors an up-close look at the minerals and stones that comprise the natural world around them. Dinosaurs and fossils guide guests through physical history, beckoning those who want to know more about extinct species. The museum is open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

UW-Madison ranks fifth nationally in research spending, tops $1.93 billion

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Wisconsin State Journal

UW-Madison is among the top five universities in the country for research spending — the highest ranking the institution has earned since 2014.

A National Science Foundation survey released Tuesday ranked UW-Madison No. 5 out of 925 universities for the $1.93 billion it spent for research in fiscal year 2024, which ran from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024.

Behind a UW-Madison spinoff’s physics-based fusion plant design

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The Daily Cardinal

A common quip about nuclear fusion is that the technology is perpetually 30 years from deployment. Fusion research has not been funded to the same levels as other, already-realized clean technologies like solar, wind and fission, but new billion-dollar investments signify interest is picking up.

University of Wisconsin-Madison fusion spinoff company Type One Energy aims to bring nuclear fusion to the grid within a decade, backed by funding and a physics-based model.

Trump’s closure of national weather center may imperil UW-Madison research

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Wisconsin State Journal

Established in 1960, the center says it provides “state-of-the-art resources, including supercomputers, research aircraft, sophisticated computer models and extensive data sets” to the atmospheric and related Earth system science community. It’s funded through the National Science Foundation.

Among other things, the center has helped improve early warnings in weather forecasts and air safety, the American Meteorological Society said in a statement.

UW scientists alarmed by Trump plan to break up national weather research center

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists are sounding the alarm over a Trump administration plan to dismantle a prominent weather and climate research center, saying it could jeopardize the future of weather forecasting.

The National Center for Atmospheric Research is based in Boulder, Colorado, but is overseen by a consortium of universities, including UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee. The center allows researchers to work together on large projects that no one scientist or university could do alone.

Filipinx American Student Organization advocates in response to discontinuation of UW Filipino language program

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The Badger Herald

Starting in the fall 2026 semester, the University of Wisconsin’s Filipino language program will no longer be offered, according to Filipinx American Student Organization Communications Chair Ethan Ham.

The program’s elimination follows federal funding cuts by the Trump administration and the dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education’s International and Foreign Language Education program that administers Title VI funding.

Title VI funding was established as part of the Higher Education Act and is used to support foreign language programs.

UW-Madison, school district team up on cellphone ban

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Wisconsin State Journal

he Madison School District will partner with the UW-Madison School of Public Affairs to come up with a policy for implementing the state’s new ban on cellphone use during instructional time.

The ban, signed into law by Gov. Tony Evers in October, requires school districts to come up with such policies by July 1. The law includes exceptions from the ban for emergency situations, a student’s ability to manage their health and educational purposes authorized by teachers.

Immigrants in Alabama can face harsher sentences than citizens for the same crimes

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ProPublica

Academic research has found that incarcerated immigrants face tougher punishment on average, with sentences that are longer by months or years than nonimmigrants. Michael Light, a sociology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, looked at the role of citizenship in both federal and state courts in California and Texas, which, unlike Alabama, keep detailed information about defendants’ citizenship status.

He found the starkest differences in Texas, where noncitizens received sentences 62% longer than citizens, even with the same charges and criminal backgrounds. The disparities exceed those between white and nonwhite citizens. Another researcher, University of California, Los Angeles law professor Ingrid Eagly, found similar results in her study of Harris County cases in Houston.

In manure, UW-Madison researcher Brayan Riascos sees the future of plastic

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Wisconsin State Journal

When Brayan Riascos looks at the Wisconsin cattle herds, he sees untapped potential.

A third-year Ph.D. civil and environmental engineering student from Colombia, Riascos’ research looks at what most consider the least attractive part of dairy and beef cattle — the piles of manure — and he sees what could someday be the building block of a more sustainable plastic than traditional petroleum-based production.

Any plastic made from manure undergoes several chemical makeovers before it’s a finished product, and certainly looks — and thankfully, smells — nothing like its source material.

CPS lunchroom workers near six months without a contract: ‘No one sees us’

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Chicago Tribune

Across the country, many school districts are experiencing high vacancy rates and turnover in cafeterias — largely because of low wages, according to Jennifer Gaddis, a University of Wisconsin Madison associate professor who studies food labor and policy. A 2024 study found that school food service workers make an average of $3.16 less than custodial staff.

“It is much harder to not only improve meal quality, but also to provide a really caring, constructive environment for young people in schools when you’re dealing with that much turnover,” Gaddis said.

Baldwin, Van Orden together introduce bill to support organic farmers

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

According to data from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, organic farming in the state supports more than 2,000 jobs and results in about $424 million in revenue. Wisconsin is home to 1,455 certified organic farms, covering 245,333 acres, second only to California, according to the Wisconsin State Farmer.

How David Stevenson, a guy with a hybrid car and a solar rooftop, helped take down a burgeoning US energy sector.

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Mother Jones

“You want a healthy amount of skepticism in a democracy…You don’t want 100 percent believers,” said Dietram Scheufele, a social scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies public perspectives on science and technology. But he warned that skepticism in the US is ​“on steroids,” pushing people from the middle into polarized political camps and toward conspiratorial thinking.

Moms’ ‘mental load’ is pushing them to the brink, new survey shows

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USA Today

“Our collective expectations of fathers have shifted. We expect dads to be more involved with their kids,” says Allison Daminger, author of “What’s on Her Mind: The Mental Workload of Family Life” and a professor at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

“At the same time, the expectations on breadwinning and dads hasn’t changed. We’ve added to their job description. I think younger dads are starting to feel that strain.”

Women’s work: the hidden mental load of household decision-making

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The Cap Times

“I really saw a turning point during the pandemic when parents were really struggling, and moms in particular were really struggling,” said Allison Daminger, a sociologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies the division of labor in adult romantic relationships.

Daminger’s book, “What’s on Her Mind: The Mental Workload of Family Life,” examines how gender shapes household duties and why women are more likely to carry the mental load.

UW-Madison chancellor says new AI college will connect campus, serve most popular majors

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Wisconsin Public Radio

Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin, who leads the University of Wisconsin-Madison, sees opening a new College of Computing and Artificial Intelligence as the right move to support in-demand majors and says funding the school won’t come at the expense of other areas of the university.