Category: Research

A study of more than 700 people, many with a family history of Alzheimer?s disease, has identified a genetic factor that could help determine if people in their 50s will develop the disease later in life.

The study, by researchers at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, was presented Wednesday at the annual Alzheimer?s Association?s International Conference on Alzheimer?s Disease in Honolulu.

Monkeys in enduring relationships show a surprising correspondence in their levels of oxytocin, a key behavioral hormone, according to research published online June 28 in the journal Hormones and Behavior.

While measuring oxytocin in the urine of 14 pairs of cotton-top tamarins, Charles Snowdon, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of psychology, observed a wide range of hormone levels. But he also saw a striking correspondence among the couples: When one mate had a high level of oxytocin, so did the other, and vice versa.

Beneath a mile of ice in Antarctica, technologies from Massachusetts companies are helping physicists detect ghostly particles smaller than atoms that shower down on Earth from faraway galaxies, carrying clues about the makeup of the universe.

This is “family fun?” Let?s find better ways to spend tax dollars and celebrate patriotism besides destroying a wetland, terrorizing wildlife and perpetuating the disease of militarism. The city should not renew its contract with Rhythm & Booms, writes Trish O?Kane, graduate student, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, UW-Madison.

A resolution that would form a citizens advisory panel to examine whether or not experimenting on monkeys is humane and ethical is on ?life support? following a meeting of the County?s Executive Committee on Thursday night.

Some floated here on boats. Others flew. Still others arrived on the sole of a dirty boot. Many were invited, but some arrived unannounced. At this point, however, no one really cares how so-called alien species like the ash borer and the zebra mussel got here. Scientists are more focused on how to get rid of these pests.

The next time the Brewers go on a road-trip skid, it might not be their fault.The “winner effect,” in which animals that win a competition win subsequent ones, occurs because of changes in their brain?s circuitry. Those changes are even stronger if the animal had a home-field advantage, according to a study by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers.

Reducing the emissions from burning fossil fuels would have health benefits besides stopping rising temperatures, according to a University of Wisconsin-Madison scientist. Jonathan Patz said he, like other scientists who participated in a Union of Concerned Scientists telephone press conference Thursday, believe global warming is happening.

Wisconsin?s cranberry growers have made significant gains in the adoption of sustainable management practices over the past two decades, a new University of Wisconsin-Madison survey indicates.

President Barack Obama has not been as good to the UW-Madison as some had hoped. The university?s request for stimulus funding to dramatically increase the size of its primate research facilities has been denied.

Noted: Dr. Robert Sapolsky of Stanford University and Dr. Richard Davidson of The University of Wisconsin-Madison are some of the neuroscientists researching stress management, and they contend that people can retrain their brains to combat stress.

The ?winner effect? is boosted by the sight, smell and spatial arrangement of familiar territory, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison found.

Did you know your dog could catch the flu? Thanks to a mutated strain of horse influenza that?s surfaced in recent years, it can. Now a UW-Madison researcher has helped prove a new vaccine approved by federal regulators can help with secondary infections that may accompany the virus.

With mats of blue-green algae frequently floating right at UW-Madison?s Lake Mendota shoreline, it only makes sense that the institution?s researchers would use the latest science to study the sometimes dangerous growths.

Should the Dane County Board put together a citizens advisory panel to examine whether or not experiments on monkeys at UW-Madison are humane and ethical?

The debate will continue Thursday night, July 8. That topic is on the agenda for a meeting of the Executive Committee, which is slated to get together at 6 p.m. in room 310 of the City County Building.

For many people, plying the Internet can be a pleasant and informative experience. A few keystrokes and a vast trove of information appears on the computer screen. But if that informative website appears with flashing or flickering, it can pose a serious problem for some people with a form of epilepsy.

A team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison?s Trace Center has created a free tool to help Web developers determine whether a site?s content flashes at a rate and intensity that might induce an epileptic seizure.

Only one gene controls brain development in humans, according to new research from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

In an unexpected twist, a new study casts a classical protein in a surprising new role: Pax6, a well-recognized factor in brain and eye development in mice, appears to play a very different and crucial part in the development of the human brain.

Su-Chun Zhang, a professor of anatomy and neurology at UW who led the new study, said knowledge of this special gene, called a master regulator, may allow scientists to create a large bank of early brain stem cells, “so you can create any kind of neurons or glial cells in the brain or spinal cord.” For example, the technique could allow scientists to generate large numbers of dopamine-generating neurons to replace those lost in Parkinson?s disease.

The human body makes rare antibodies effective against all flu viruses and these might be boosted to design a better universal flu treatment, researchers reported on Monday. Tests on mice suggest these immune system proteins could help most people survive a normally lethal dose of flu virus, the team at the University of Wisconsin and Seattle-based Theraclone Sciences said.

Botox users have long been mocked for their inability to show emotion on their partially paralysed faces. But new research suggests the anti-wrinkle jabs could also affect womenâ??s ability to experience feelings in the first place. The findings are backed up by a similar study by scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, published in the journal Psychological Science.

Since graduating from D.C. Everest Senior High School in 1957, John Wayne Kennedy has helped discover the Lost Pyramids of Rock Lake in Lake Mills, worked as an investigator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, published a novel and consulted for companies dealing with pesticides. For the past three years, he has found another focus: sending plant and human stem cells into space to see how they reproduce, and in the process creating hardier versions of the plants and perhaps even human organs. The project stemmed from a question heâ??d asked as a biology student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1960: How would plant cells reproduce in zero gravity?

A former UW-Madison genetics professor pled guilty in federal court today to falsifying data in a grant application. Elizabeth B. Goodwin of Upton, Mass., admitted her conduct constituted “misconduct in science,” according to a news release from the Department of Justice. She could face up to one year in prison and a $100,000 fine.Goodwin resigned from UW-Madison on February 23, 2006.

In a rare criminal prosecution for research misconduct, a former University of Wisconsin-Madison genetics researcher pleaded guilty Friday to submitting false data to the federal government. Elizabeth Goodwin of Upton, Mass., pleaded guilty to one count of making a false statement, admitting she included false data in a progress report to convince federal reviewers that her lab had made more progress than was actually the case.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, toured a biomanufacturing facility on the UW Madison campus yesterday to show support for a kind of stem cell research his Republican challengers oppose.

Pharmaceuticals are effective at treating many diseases, but making them can hurt the environment in the process.A new technique developed by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers, however, suggests that drugs can be made without toxic byproducts. Their report was published online June 16 in the journal Green Chemistry.

The U.S. Forest Products Laboratory will dedicate its new Centennial Research Facility at 9 a.m. Wednesday at 1 Gifford Pinchot Drive. Invited speakers include Harris Sherman, undersecretary of the USDAâ??s Department of Natural Resources and Environment; Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell; Deputy Chief of Research Ann Bartuska; and UW-Madison College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Dean Molly Jahn.

National Institutes of Health chief Francis Collins turned down a private lab’s request for federal research funding approval of 47 human embryonic stem cell lines, many of them with genes for diseases such as muscular dystrophy or cystic fibrosis. Collins approved ei lines from academic centers, bringing the total number of NIH approved cell lines to 75.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett says he will back stem cell research just like Gov. Jim Doyle if heâ??s elected governor.

Itâ??s no secret that the Amazon rain forest is in trouble. Deforestation at the hands of logging and agriculture has beat back this crucial natural resource, which sucks greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere, steadies global climate patterns, and is home to an incredible diversity of animals and plants. 

If you were consoled by the news last year that the tropical rainforests are growing back, and that these new forests are â??almost as biodiverse as untouched forestâ?, prepare to be unconsoled.