Category: Research

A nearly seven-foot tall exotic plant will soon stink up the Milwaukee Public Museum. A titan arum plant, also known as a “corpse flower,” is preparing to flower. It takes at least six years to flower and is a descendent of the University of Wisconsin-Madisonâ??s flower.

Is experimenting on monkeys ethical?

Thatâ??s the question Rick Marolt has spent the past four years trying to get someone — anyone — on the UW-Madison campus to answer. Not affiliated with the many groups that oppose animal research, the 48-year-old consultant and part-time business lecturer at Edgewood College and UW-Madison has made it a personal mission to push the university for more public self-examination on this hot-button topic.

Itâ??s a big deal for the university, which houses some 1,900 monkeys, most of them at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center. Experiments on everything from AIDS to stem cells using those monkeys brought in more than $46 million in research grants in 2008-2009.

On orders from Chancellor Biddy Martin, a UW-Madison committee on Friday took up a contentious issue on campus: Is it ethical to conduct experiments on monkeys? Not surprisingly, the discussion that resulted hardly settled the question. Animal rights activists still contend that scientists shouldnâ??t conduct experiments on monkeys that they deem too risky for humans. Scientists still believe the research is ethical, given stringent internal and federal oversight. The committee, UW-Madisonâ??s All-Campus Animal Care and Use Committee, approved a statement to that effect Friday.

A key University of Wisconsin-Madison campus committee on Friday upheld the universityâ??s research on monkeys as ethical, even as committee members downplayed some recent animal welfare violations.

A UW committee decided its review of proposed scientific research projects involving primates is sufficient to answer ethical questions about the animal research.

The fourteen members of the all animal care and use committee voted unanimously in support of a statement of the committee’s current standards in evaluating scientific research with monkeys.

A UW-Madison committee meets publicly Friday (1/8) to discuss the ethics of experimenting on monkeys. This follows a recent federal investigation that found several violations in the universityâ??s animal research labs.

UW-Madison has two primary animal research centers, where more than 2,000 monkeys are actively used for experiments, ranging from emotional behavior to the effects of infectious diseases.

Inspectors from the National Institutes of Health said in a letter to UW-Madison that the animals they saw during a December visit were in good condition, while also finding areas where the university could improve its oversight over animal research. The letter comes on the heels of a report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which found 20 animal welfare violations. The two agencies, the USDA and NIH, made a surprise visit to UW-Madison last month.

A study by a University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher and the Department of Revenue concludes that property tax increases force few elderly people to move out of their homes.

UW-Madison professor Andrew Reschovsky says that contrary to claims by politicians hoping to limit property tax increases, the elderly “are not picking up and moving because of property taxes.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is to provide a federal animal welfare agency a report by April 1 outlining progress in 12 areas of concern in the universityâ??s massive animal research enterprise.

But while officials with the National Institutes of Healthâ??s Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare OLAW noted several issues which “need to be addressed and modified or corrected,” the tone of the report, which was obtained by The Capital Times, seemed generally positive and stated: “As discussed in our exit briefing, we found all the animals examined to be in good condition.”

Attempts to reach the authors of the OLAW report have, so far, been unsuccessful.

Madison is a great dog-friendly town. So itâ??s sad to read that, right in our backyards, UW-Madison was cited for its lack of lab animal care.

I am outraged by the latest revelation of UW-Madisonâ??s inhumane treatment and conditions for animals used in its research

The University of Wisconsin Press had recently reissued a book by Fred Cassidy titled “Dane County Place-Names.” Cassidy, who died in 2000 at 92, was the engine driving the ambitious and acclaimed Dictionary of American Regional English, or DARE, based in the English Department at UW-Madison.

Tweeting by thinking? Itâ??s been done. And a Dell Rapids High School alum was part of the team that did it.

Justin Williams, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and his team were part of Time magazineâ??s “50 Best Inventions of 2009.”

The National Institutes of Health has ordered the University of Wisconsin-Madison to fix a dozen issues with its animal research program. That follows a visit to campus by NIH animal welfare inspectors in early December.

Dear Editor: On Friday, Jan. 8, at 1 p.m. in 350 Bascom Hall, the All-Campus Animal Care and Use Committee at UW-Madison will take up the question: â??Is experimenting on monkeys ethical?â? Members of the public may attend but not participate in this meeting unless invited to.

The question is important because researchers themselves have revealed deep similarities between monkeys and people.

Post-surgical suffering, depression, vomiting, slippery floors, open food supplies, dirty vents, unsanitary operating rooms and equipment, urine smells, painful experimentation, expired medications. A Third World hospital? Hardly â?? itâ??s our very own UW-Madison animal research department.

Mortenson Construction Co. has been awarded a bid as construction manager for the $100 million Wisconsin Energy Institute, a new facility for renewable energy research at UW-Madison. The building will be located at 1552 University Ave., the site of the old University Health Services building. Construction of the first phase of the project, about 100,000 square feet, is expected to begin later this year.

M.A. Mortenson Co. has been selected as the construction manager for the $75.7 million Wisconsin Energy Institute on the University of Wisconsin campus in Madison.

Work on the nearly 200,000-square-foot facility, being designed by Potter Lawson / HOK, is expected to begin in mid-2010.

The University of Wisconsin-Madisonâ??s patenting arm has won an appeal in federal court against Canadian drug company Xenon.

One of the first memories Patricia McConnell can still recall vividly is of her as a young girl. She was lying on the living room floor of her childhood home with Fudge, the familyâ??s terrier.â??I wondered, â??What is she thinking?â??â? McConnell says. â??â??â??How could I ever know what sheâ??s thinking?â?? In many ways, thatâ??s still what Iâ??m doing.”

Now sheâ??s one of the worldâ??s foremost experts in pet behavior, particularly dogs. The subject is the crux of her research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and of the conversations sheâ??s had for the past 14 years on her weekly syndicated radio program â??Calling All Pets,â? which airs locally from 7 to 8 a.m. each Saturday on WGCU, 90.1 FM.

The federal animal welfare arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture was at the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus at least two separate times in 2009 before returning with inspectors from another National Institutes of Health agency earlier in December.

Depressed and vomiting dogs, a dirty operating room and expired medications were among 20 violations found at UW-Madison by federal animal welfare inspectors during a surprise visit last month. UW-Madison must fix the problems noted in the report, which was released this week, or risk losing some $200 to $300 million in annual animal research funding, said Eric Sandgren, the universityâ??s head of animal research oversight.

A rare joint federal investigation of the University of Wisconsin-Madisonâ??s animal research program found multiple federal animal welfare violations, which could potentially compromise the programâ??s funding.

Some say they hold the potential for medical miracles. Others claim they are a moral abomination. Either way, human embryonic stem cells captured headlines during the past decade in a way few areas of scientific research have before.

Why drink raw milk? Proposed legislation would allow on farm sales of the unpasteurized product, but a University of Wisconsin expert says the risks of drinking it outweigh the benefits. Scott Rankin, an associate professor of food science, says that while he drank raw milk as a child in Californiaâ??s dairy country, he doesnâ??t recommend it.

A new study says the leading cause of disability in older people in low and middle income countries is dementia. The researchers disagree with the World Health Organization which says blindness and other vision problems are the leading cause.

Ancient bright stars known as “blue stragglers” likely increase their mass by stealing fuel from companion stars, astronomers in Wisconsin said.”These blue, luminous stars should have used up their hydrogen fuel and flamed out long ago. Yet they are still here,” said Robert Mathieu, an astronomer with the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

By fusing mouse and human cells, scientists at Stanford have uncovered part of the mechanism involved in reprogramming skin cells back to their embryonic origin, and in doing so have shed light on the critical role played by a protein.

A team of scientists led by a University of Wisconsin-Madison virologist has published dramatic evidence showing that a compound called T-705 could be a promising weapon against deadly avian influenza.

A home near federally protected land may sound like paradise. But researchers at UW-Madison have compiled what may be the most comprehensive look at the threat of housing development in rural areas.

An experimental influenza drug can protect mice against H5N1 avian influenza better than the preferred drug Tamiflu, researchers reported on Monday. The drug, called T-705 or favipiravir, is made by Fujifilm Holdings Corp (4901.T) unit Toyama Chemical Co. It works differently from Tamiflu and Relenza and seems to work at lower doses, the researchers reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Itâ??s not that depressed people canâ??t feel good, itâ??s that they canâ??t hang on to that feeling, a new study claims. The novel notion upends previous beliefs that depressed people donâ??t even start out with positive emotions, and that they have no or little response in the areas of the brain related to good feelings.

“This tells us that a consideration of positive emotion is as important, if not more important, in understanding depression,” said Richard Davidson, senior author of a study appearing online Dec. 21 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

We all know that states have “official” animals, birds, and flowers. Until I did a little research, I didnâ??t know that there were also state insects, amphibians, and reptiles. For example, the state insect of New York is the ladybug, Missouriâ??s reptile is the three toed box turtle, and the official amphibian of Washington is the Pacific chorus frog. However, recently Wisconsin has taken this naming of living things a step further. Americaâ??s Dairyland, whose state dance is the polka, has been in the news lately because there is a bill before the state legislature to name a State Germ.

Although not ranked No. 1 yet, one University of Minnesota team recently made the most impressive move of any top 20 school in the country.

Discarded food would be collected and turned into energy under a proposal announced Monday by Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk. The project would be one of the first in the United States to use municipal food waste to generate energy, according to Troy Runge, director of the Wisconsin Bioenergy Initiative, a state-funded program based at the UW-Madison.

An experimental new drug could be more effective than existing drugs against swine flu and bird flu, a UW-Madison researcher found. The drug, T-705, or favipiravir, was previously found to be effective against swine flu, or H1N1. Now Yoshihiro Kawaoka, a virologist at the university, has shown that the drug protects mice against bird flu, or H5N1.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has awarded a $10.1 million, five-year grant to an interdisciplinary team of researchers led by University of Wisconsin-Madison mechanical engineering professor Xiaochun Li.

A team of University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have won a $10 million federal grant for nanotechnology work.

A bill naming the bacterium that converts milk into cheese as the official state microbe passed easily Thursday with 7-1 vote.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison has landed a $10.1 million, five-year grant for research into use of nanotechnology in metal castings, the university said Wednesday.

A manâ??s skeleton found atop a stone slab at Copán, which was the capital of an ancient Maya state, contains clues to a colonial expansion that occurred more than 1,000 years before Spanish explorers reached the Americas.

The bones come from Kâ??inich Yax Kâ??ukâ?? Moâ??, or KYKM for short, the researchers report in an upcoming Journal of Anthropological Archaeology. KYKM was the first of 16 kings who ruled Copán and surrounding highlands of what is today northern Honduras for about 400 years, from 426 to 820, say archaeologist T. Douglas Price of the University of Wisconsinâ??Madison and his colleagues. KYKMâ??s bone chemistry indicates that he grew up in the central Maya lowlands, which are several hundred kilometers northwest of Copán.

Itâ??s a hectic time for students on the University of Wisconsin campus, with finals the main focus. At the Capital Cafe in Grainger Hall, however, theyâ??re being tested at lunchtime as well.