UW-Madison researchers plan next week to start monkey studies of Zika virus, which has caused an outbreak apparently linked to birth defects in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The National Institutes of Health is funding a Zika Virus at UW-Madison. While many research teams across the country are still drafting their proposals, a team led by UW-Madison Pathology professor Dave O’Connor and associate professor of Pathobiological Sciences Thomas Friedrich will begin their first study on Monday.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor Bill Tracy has become the school’s first organic agriculture researcher, inaugurating an endowed professorship that could lead to new advances in a field that might not otherwise see university research.
The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences is the recipient of the nation’s first endowed chair focused on plant breeding for organic crops, representatives of Organic Valley and Clif Bar & Company said today at a ceremony at the State Capitol. The endowment will be funded in perpetuity with a $1 million gift from the companies and matched by a $1 million gift from UW graduates John and Tashia Morgridge.
Noted: In the Journal of Adolescent Research, researchers from the University of Wisconsin and Bowling Green State University describe relationships as “intimate unions” that are “best conceived of as dynamic trajectories involving a heterogeneous and multi-directional array of transitions.” That’s academic for: you don’t really have a clue what’s going to happen. In a study of 792 young adults who were dating, about half of the respondents had tried to rekindle an old relationship; a few more, 57 percent, had at least had sex with an ex.
Shaun Marcott, an assistant professor of geoscience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is a co-author of a new article in Nature Climate Change that tracks the grim long-term effects of climate change on sea level, UW-Madison News reports.
A group of international climate scientists warning that if carbon pollution continues at its current rate, it will wreak havoc on the global climate for more than 10,000 years.
The college frenzy obsesses on key hurdles students must clear to snag a spot in a good college: taking tough courses and getting good grades, building an impressive list of extracurriculars, gathering the financial resources to pay the bills. But the simple fact of a student’s street address can be as big a hurdle as any.
Fresh produce isn’t usually on the menu for astronauts in space, but some University of Wisconsin-Madison botanists are working with NASA to get astronauts gardening.
University of Wisconsin-Madison mechanical engineers have developed technology that could reduce reliance on the batteries in mobile devices by simply plugging a device into your shoe, according to a release. (Researchers: Tom Krupenkin, professor of mechanical engineering, and J. Ashley Taylor, senior scientist in Department of Mechanical Engineering.)
Noted: The University of Wisconsin School of Business student has collaborated with Askar Choudhury, James Jones and Raquiba Choudhury of Illinois State University, using an innovative statistical approach to analyze data by finding a trigger point that would initiate payment for crop loss through a simplified, index-based insurance policy. The approach is designed to be less costly than traditional agricultural insurance policies.
UW-Madison’s Jorge Osorio, Matthew Aliota and Jonathon Patz speak about the spread of Zika virus, funding issues in infectious disease research, the interdisciplinary nature of the work, and the role of climate and climate change in the global spread of the virus.
Matthew Aliota, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine who helped detect Zika in Colombia, discusses a possible reason why Colombia has not yet seen cases of the rare birth defect linked to the virus in Brazil.
The spread of mosquito-born Zika virus, which has been linked to birth defects in children of infected women, has led to travel advisories for pregnant women and, in some countries, advice that women delay pregnancy entirely. What is Zika, and how can countries fight it? Joy Cardin talks to UW-Madison’s Kristen Bernard about how Zika is spreading, the challenges it poses, and how big a problem it may become in the U.S.
CLEMSON — Gloria Ladson-Billings may not be the first to name-drop hip-hop superstars like Lupe Fiasco, Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj in the halls of higher education.
Noted: The bills would lay out $50,000 to purchase licenses for a virtual dementia tour; $50,000 in additional funding annually for Alzheimer’s research at UW-Madison; and $1 million in additional money annually for the state’s Alzheimer’s family and caregiver support program.
Noted: In addition, Johnson says she’ll work with UW-Madison to get funding to watch for the particular mosquito that caries the virus.
A new study from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the University of Minnesota found lithium ion batteries used to power laptops and cell phones can be harmful to important microorganisms in soil.
The Legislature’s budget committee is set to vote on five bills to help people cope with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.The bills would lay out $50,000 to purchase licenses for a virtual dementia tour, a program that simulates dementia; $50,000 in additional funding annually for Alzheimer’s research at UW-Madison; $1 million in additional money annually for the state’s Alzheimer’s family and caregiver support program; $465,000 in ongoing funding to support four more dementia care specialists spread across counties with fewer than 150,000 people and a state specialist trainer; and an additional $250,000 in fiscal year 2016-17 for state grants for training county and regional crisis teams on providing help to dementia sufferers.
University of Wisconsin-Madison professor John Hawks is part of a team that made one of the greatest fossil discoveries of the past half century.
Noted: Field Day Lab is continuing to develop some of the ideas that were born in the workshop into free, open-sourced video games. The game designers said they aim to further engage students with an interactive learning environment.
“By engaging science teachers right from the start, we want to build games that will actually be used in classrooms,” said David Gagnon, the director of Field Day Lab, in the release. “Too many games languish because they do not fit what teachers want. With the teachers’ help, we want to build them right—right out of the gate.”
Quoted: “We thought the effect might be dampened with the groups actual media exposure prior to watching the program. Typically Muslims and Arabs are shown on television as more violent and aggressive and are shown in more stereotypical ways like as terrorists,” said Sohad Murrar, the study author. Murrar is a graduate student studying social and personality psychology in at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “It was particularly exciting to see this positive shift it was quite a robust effect, and we think if people’s prejudice was dampened in this case, this could be applied to other target groups.”
Students who are part of the University of Wisconsin’s BadgerLoop team took third in the world for their Hyperloop design in Texas yesterday.
Angela Byars-Winston, a counseling psychologist at the U. of Wisconsin at Madison, is involved in an ambitious training program in “culturally responsive mentoring,” funded by the NIH.
A team of students from MIT have won a competition to design pods for the still-unbuilt Hyperloop transportation system. More than 100 university teams presented design concepts to a panel of SpaceX judges, with MIT beating out teams from Delft University of Technology, The University of Wisconsin, Virginia Tech and the University of California, Irvine to win first place.
One of the most significant efforts to study changes in the climate has been taking place near the top of the world. It’s a place called Petermann Glacier in Greenland, one of the largest glaciers in the Arctic Circle and a glacier that has experienced dramatic melting. It is a harsh and dangerous environment, and it has drawn some of the world’s leading climate scientists who are only able to work there a little over a month a year.
This year’s winner of the Lewis Thomas Prize for Writing about Science is Sean B. Carroll, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of several books including, “Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species,” which was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2009.
Wisconsin’s rural school districts are facing a “perfect storm” of declining enrollment and uncertain funding that pose tough questions about their future, according to a new report. A University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher said that the information she compiled in her report are the kind of problems that won’t go away any time soon.
Noted: The Board voted to approve a proposed University of Wisconsin study entitled “Academic Effects of Concussion in High School Student Athletes,” reflecting the membership’s constant commitment to the safety and well-being of Wisconsin high school athletes. The Board’s support of the research study does not obligate a member school to participate in the study.
Column by chemistry professor Helen Blackwell on her research at UW–Madison.
Live at Four talks to UW-Madison’s Kristen Bernard and Matthew Aliota, both experts on Zika virus. Aliota is part of team that confirmed the Zika virus in Columbia and is working to find a way to stop it.
A new paper says that the first tests confirming transmission of the Zika virus in Colombia were carried out by researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Colombia’s Universidad de Sucre.
Report on the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study from Pamela Herd, a professor of public affairs and sociology, a faculty affiliate with the Institute for Research on Poverty and principal investigator of the study.
Smoking cessation pills aren’t any better than nicotine patches or lozenges at helping people successfully quit, a U.S. study suggests.
A Wisconsin Planned Parenthood clinic in 2010 provided heart and brain tissues from aborted fetuses to University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers for studies aimed at understanding the growth of babies with and without birth defects.
Many would describe using science to defy the laws of physics as a rare feat. But for University of Wisconsin assistant professor Mikhail Kats, it’s just another day in the lab.
Looking ahead to February, temperatures are expected to be above normal in Wisconsin, according to a University of Wisconsin-Madison meteorologist.
Computer scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are tasked with protecting data from some of the nation’s most prolific science research programs, and they’ve just gotten a financial boost to bolster their efforts.
Certain types of debt that parents take on may have adverse effects on children’s socioemotional well-being according to a new study by researchers at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and Dartmouth published by the journal Pediatrics. The study sheds new light on the link between debt and family well-being, as previous research on debt has typically focused on how debt affects the mental health and well-being of adults and has yet to explore how parents’ debt may impact a child’s well-being.
While past studies have examined the ways in which debts affect the mental health and well-being of adults, new research led by professors at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Dartmouth College examines the problem from the child’s point of view.
The other bills include $500,000 to fund four dementia care specialists in counties with fewer than 150,000 people and a statewide specialist responsible for educating employers about dementia; $250,000 to train mobile crisis teams in how to care for those suffering from dementia; and $50,000 to fund research by UW-Madison’s Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.
Scientists at the University of Wisconsin have worked with colleagues at the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection on a plan to help the state’s honey bees.
According to a new study, about 44 percent of working people diagnosed with metastatic cancer continue to work after their diagnoses. Interviewed:Amye Tevaarwerk, the UW-Madison oncologist who worked on the study about which factors are associated with employment changes among patients with metastatic cancer.
University of Wisconsin researchers say they’ve found a treatment to clean up the plaques that form in the brain of mice with Alzheimer’s disease.
The research published in the journal Brain shows that compounds that inhibit two cellular proteins can help clean up the plaques found in the brain of mice with Alzheimer’s disease. The proteins work inside the cell to remove toxic material.
Quoted: Luigi Puglielli, of the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.
Dick Lathrop, a UW-Madison expert on fresh water systems who served as one of the study’s principal investigators, comments.
New whey formulas are being worked on all the time at the UW-Madison’s Center for Dairy Research. Noted: Mark Stephenson, UW-Madison Center for Dairy Profitability director, comments on the state of the dairy market.
U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin has introduced new legislation to create industry standards for regenerative medicine.The bill would create a public-private board to set guidelines for regenerative medical products, including those developed from stem cells. Dr. Bill Murphy, co-director of University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center, said the standards used currently aren’t specific to the cells and tissues used in the therapies.
Aaron Olver wants University Research Park to look more like a city. That, says URP’s managing director, includes bringing in restaurants, coffee shop and fitness centers, as well as adding more picnic tables and social events and expanding URP’s food carts program. It’s all part of an effort to attract more companies to URP and bring in talent that increasingly seeks urban spaces and collaboration.
Separate studies have been released that look at mercury contamination in the environment.
One shows scientists can track the type of mercury pollution that gets into the Great Lakes. The other shows global mercury pollution is declining.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is terminating its dairy sheep research and outreach program. Based at UW’s Spooner Agricultural Research Station, the program will end later this year, the result of state budget cuts.
Greenland’s vast ice sheet continues to melt, and thanks to two recently-launched satellites we’re beginning to understand why it’s happening so quickly. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison believe increased cloud cover over the ice sheet itself may be to blame for up to a third of the ice melt that is occurring, a new study indicates.
Clouds play an important role in melting Greenland’s ice sheet, say scientists.
Dr. Seth Dailey knows it’s hard to underestimate the power of voice. “Think about the number of people you make judgments about based on their voice,” says Dailey, a UW-Madison surgeon who specializes in vocal disorders. “We do it all the time. It’s part of the perceptual package. It affects how people can do their jobs with altered voice production. Vocal issues are more important than ever before in human history.”
Pro-life organizations and the legislators behind (the fetal tissue ban) bill and two other bills held a Rally for Life on the Capitol steps, urging lawmakers to pass all three. The groups are particularly focused on encouraging Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, to schedule a vote, because they believe the Assembly has the votes to pass the legislation. But Vos said Tuesday Republican lawmakers are still working to reach a compromise on the proposal, which is an updated version of a 2013 bill that would ban the “sale, transfer or experimentation” of fetal body parts.
Researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin and University of Wisconsin-Madison have won a four-year, $5 million federal grant to study the brain networks of epilepsy patients. Their study, called the Epilepsy Connectome Project, will involve state-of-the-art brain imaging of about 200 adult temporal lobe epilepsy patients from across the state.
As anti-abortion advocates put pressure on Wisconsin lawmakers to pass a bill banning research on aborted fetal tissue, a top Senate Republican says it’s uncertain whether it will be brought to the Senate floor by the end of the legislative session.
Her first book, ‘On the Run’ — about thelives of young black men in WestPhiladelphia — has fueled a fight withinsociology over who gets to speak for whom.
BETHESDA, MARYLAND—Fuzzy definitions, deep disagreement about risks and benefits, and an unfortunate acronym: All bedeviled an expert panel as it met here last week to examine whether the United States should fund certain risky pathogen experiments. Researchers largely praised a massive, recently released risk assessment of so-called gain-of-function (GOF) research, and a draft plan for reviewing the riskiest studies. Many had concerns about the details, however, and the meeting provided little clarity on one key issue: if and when the U.S. government will decide whether to lift a now 15-month-old moratorium on a handful of U.S.-funded virology experiments.
Q – Can stem cells be used to repair brain damage or help someone with Alzheimer’s, dementia or Parkinson’s?— Kate Krueger, 47, Madison
A – The simple answer to the question is yes. It is possible to regenerate parts of the brain with stem cells, just like we can in other organs.
Companies less than a year old accounted for all of Wisconsin’s net new job creation in 2012, according to a new study conducted by two University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers.
