Category: Research

Swine flu is more dangerous than regular flu and could cause an especially deadly flu season in the United States this winter, UW-Madison research suggests.

The swine flu virus, also known as H1N1, infects cells deep in the lungs of animals, a study by campus virologist Yoshihiro Kawaoka found. That could explain why swine flu has caused serious cases of viral pneumonia in healthy people, something normal flu generally doesnâ??t do, he said.

Another worrisome finding: Only the very elderly â?? people born before 1918 â?? appear to have any natural protection to the new virus, Kawaoka said. Previous reports have suggested that the immune systems of people older than 60 could help ward off swine flu.

Most people accept that death and taxes are inevitable. But that doesnâ??t mean you should not try to postpone them. A good accountant can help with the latter, but the usual prescription for the former is a way of life that avoids excess.

For a country in which roughly 200 million people are overweight or obese, scientists today have discouraging news: Even those who maintain a healthy weight probably should be eating less.

Evidence has been mounting for years that the practice of caloric restriction — essentially, going on a permanent diet — greatly reduces the risk of age-related diseases and even postpones death. It has been shown to significantly extend the lives of yeast, worms, flies, spiders, fish, mice and rats.

Cutting calories may delay the ageing process and reduce the risk of disease, a long-term study of monkeys suggests.

The benefits of calorie restriction are well documented in animals, but now the results have been replicated in a close relative of man over a lengthy period.

Over 20 years, monkeys whose diets were not restricted were nearly three times more likely to have died than those whose calories were counted.

Eat less, live longer? It seems to work for monkeys: A 20-year study found cutting calories by almost a third slowed their aging and fended off death. This is not about a quick diet to shed a few pounds.

Scientists have long known they could increase the lifespan of mice and more primitive creatures â?? worms, flies â?? with deep, long-term cuts from normal consumption.

Now comes the first evidence that such reductions delay the diseases of aging in primates, too â?? rhesus monkeys living at the Wisconsin National Primate Center. Researchers reported their study Friday in the journal Science.

Eating less helped monkeys live longer and prevented disease in a study that holds promise for humans hoping to stay young.

U.S. scientists, who already knew that cutting calories prolonged the life of rodents and worms, first began to investigate the effect on rhesus monkeys in 1989. Their findings are published in the journal Science today.

Researchers have found that reducing calories by as much as 30 per cent â?? just above malnutrition levels â?? could reduce risks of developing heart disease or cancer by half and increase lifetimes by nearly a third.

The extreme diet could add an extra 25 years to the average life in Britain with the vast majority of people living to their 100th birthday.

Sharply cutting calories in the diets of rhesus monkeys was found to reduce aging-related deaths, according to a study that followed 76 monkeys for two decades.

The findings, published Thursday in Science magazine by researchers at the University of Wisconsin, give new impetus to researchers and companies, including GlaxoSmithKline PLC, that are searching for a drug to mimic the beneficial effects of a meager diet in humans without the feeling of near-starvation.

Wisconsin researchers reported yesterday that rhesus monkeys on a low-calorie diet live longer and healthier lives, a finding two decades in the making that suggests such diets might slow aging in people, too.

Scientists have long known that dramatically cutting calories can extend the lives of yeast, flies, and rodents, discoveries that have sparked a fevered quest for a human fountain of youth. The new study in monkeys, a genetic cousin of humans, gives researchers hope that they are on the right track.

A University of Wisconsin-Madison associate professor of bacteriology has been awarded the nation’s highest honor for researchers beginning their independent careers.

Cameron Currie is one of 20 winners of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. The honor was announced by the UW-Madison news service on Thursday.

A long-awaited study of aging in rhesus monkeys suggests, with some reservations, that people could in principle fend off the usual diseases of old age and considerably extend their life span by following a special diet.

The results from one of the two studies, conducted by a team led by Ricki J. Colman and Richard Weindruch at the University of Wisconsin, were reported Thursday in Science. The researchers say that now, 20 years after the experiment began, the monkeys are showing many beneficial signs of caloric resistance, including significantly less diabetes, cancer, and heart and brain disease. â??These data demonstrate that caloric restriction slows aging in a primate species,â? they conclude.

Could eating less extend your life?

New research from the University of Wisconsin-Madison indicates that it seems to work for monkeys.

A 20-year study of rhesus monkeys found cutting calories by almost a third slowed their aging and fended off death.

It backs up what scientists have long known about mice, worms and flies, that their lifespan can be extended by deep, long-term cuts in what should be normal consumption.

Scientists at U-W Madison say eat less, live longer and healthier.

It’s called “Caloric Restriction” and it’s nothing new.

“It’s been known since 1935 that a reduction in calorie intake can increase the lifespan of laboratory rats and keep them healthier for a longer period of time.”

The secret to a disease-free long life may be simple, a new study says: Eat a third less food.

But for most people that is no easy task, so scientists have turned to monkeys to learn what a severely restricted diet can do.

The answer, from a 20-year study at UW-Madison: Monkeys that eat 30 percent fewer calories than normal are three times less likely to develop or die from age-related diseases at any given time than other monkeys.

The secret to a long, disease-free life may be as simple as pushing yourself away from the dinner table before eating too muchâ?¦at least if you’re a monkey.

Working with rhesus monkeys for 20 years, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have found that severely restricting calories led to significantly fewer deaths from natural causes as well as less diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease and brain shrinkage.

Cellular Dynamics International’s disclosure Wednesday that its researchers have generated stem cells from ordinary human blood samples holds enormous promise in the emerging field of personalized medicine.

A study last year estimated Wisconsin’s bear population at 33,657 – almost triple the number of bears thought to be living in the state.

The work was done by Timothy R. Van Deelen, a wildlife ecologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and graduate student David MacFarland. Previous DNR estimates had placed the population at 13,000.

Gov. Jim Doyle defended his travel documentation Tuesday in response to a news report that concluded his travel records didn’t meet state standards.

“Nothing I do is secret or undocumented, as they claim,” Doyle said in a meeting with The Post-Crescent editorial board.

A committee of UW-Madison officials recently selected the five research themes and faculty leaders that will guide UW-Madisonâ??s new research facility, the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery.

The institute, which is currently under construction on University Avenue, will focus on research intended to improve human health. The five selected areas of focus are epigenetics, tissue engineering scaffold research, health technology design, optimization of biology and medicine, and systems biology.

Human embryonic stem cells could be a step closer to wide use in human studies, thanks to a research-ready cell line developed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The universityâ??s Waisman Clinical Biomanufacturing Facility and the WiCell Research Institute, affiliated with the university, have produced a cell line that meets the Good Manufacturing Practices required for research in people, the organizations announced this week.

Sixty-three percent of Wisconsin residents approve of the way President Barack Obama is handling his job as president, according to a UW-Madison Badger Poll.

The poll, which was conducted over a two month period from April to June, asked 593 Wisconsin residents about their views on the nation, the state and the economy.

The genomes of 17 different ants, fungi and bacteria that eat through hundreds of pounds of leaf matter a year could ultimately lead to new techniques for making biofuels.

Scientists from the University of Wisconsin, the Joint Genome Institute and Emory University are sequencing the first-ever community genome, searching for clues to how what’s essentially a 50 million-year-old bioreactor operates.

The Obama administration has lifted some restrictions on stem cell research. Scientists say the new rules will give them a lot more freedom to do research that could one day lead to better treatments for injuries and disease.

Beth Dumont, a fourth-year UW-Madison graduate student studying evolution and genetics, spends much of her time admiring the intricate internal architecture of mouse cells through a microscope.

It sounds like something from a science fiction movie: Sensors are surgically inserted in the brain to understand what you’re thinking. Machines that can speak, move or process information â?? based on the fleeting thoughts in a person’s imagination.

But it’s not completely fictional. The technology is out there. A researcher in Wisconsin recently announced the ability to “think” updates onto the Twitter website. Locally, researchers at Washington University have developed even deeper ways of tying humans and computers together.

Noted: But Wisconsin’s blooming biotech industry doesn’t just protect corn. It helps protect the state’s economic interests, too.

The industry in Wisconsin, home to more than 400 biotech companies employing 34,000 people, is among the nation’s largest.

On the UW campus alone, the $841 million plowed into sponsored academic research and development ranks the university third nationally behind Johns Hopkins and the University of California, San Francisco, in research and development clout, according to a study from Tom Still, president of the Wisconsin Technology Council.

It’s always risky to predict the results of scientific breakthroughs and new research. They often take years, trial and error, and often luck. But there is no question that the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery going up on University Avenue are being built with near limitless expectations for improving human health and welfare.

University of Wisconsin-Madison officials ended months of intense competition Tuesday by announcing the five core ideas that researchers are to pursue in the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, to be completed in December 2010.

Computer models to outsmart viruses and scaffolds on which stem cells can grow are among five topics picked for the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, the public part of a public-private research building going up on the 1300 block of University Avenue.

UW-Madison on Tuesday announced the five scientists selected to lead work in the public institute, to open in December 2010. They are among 26 faculty who applied.

Clive N. Svendsen, joint leader of the Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center at the University of Wisconsin, has been named director of the new Cedars-Sinai Regenerative Medicine Institute, effective Dec. 1.      

Currently a professor of neurology and anatomy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and consulting professor at Stanford University, Svendsenâ??s research focuses on both modeling and  treating neurodegenerative disorders such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrigâ??s disease) and Parkinsonâ??s disease using a combination of stem cells and powerful growth factors.  

Opportunities abound for investors in a world facing massive population growth and escalating demands for food, fiber and fuel, according to a report released Thursday by Deutsche Bank and the University of Wisconsin-Madison

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, exposed human skin cells to the smog-related ozone in the laboratory and found that they turned on cellular machinery that normally responds to stress, suggesting ozone may be toxic to human skin. However, further experiments are required to confirm the findings in people.

The University of Wisconsin System School Library Education Consortium has been awarded almost $1 million to help school librarians become better versed in technology and social media such as Twitter.

Ever wonder how fireworks actually work?

Inquiring minds can find out on Saturday at Memorial Union Terrace during a free public demonstration on the chemistry behind fireworks by UW-Madison chemistry professor Bassam Shakhashiri.

The Lower 9th Ward neighborhood launched two artificial marsh mats in a bold effort to fill in the open waters of a wetlands area known as the “Golden Triangle.”

Under an intense heat, the launching ceremony Tuesday was attended by volunteers, scientists, lawyers and residents. Spearheading the effort were ecologists with the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

This summer the National Weather Service will put into practice a method that uses satellite observations to predict where hazardous thunderstorms will arise.

The weather service uses radar to detect severe thunderstorms about 15 minutes before they present significant danger on the ground.

With the new method, developed by scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, meteorologists could have an extra 30 to 45 minutes’ lead time, “helping us issue more accurate and timely severe thunderstorm and tornado watches before the storms form, and reduce false alarms,” said Jeff Craven, science and operations officer of the NWS Milwaukee office in Sullivan, one of four offices planning to start using the method.

This summer the National Weather Service will put into practice a method developed by scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison that uses satellite observations to predict where hazardous thunderstorms will arise.

The weather service uses radar to detect severe thunderstorms about 15 minutes before they present significant danger on the ground.

A UW developmental biologist wins one-year grant to continue research into how animals react to bacteria.

University of Wisconsin-Madison developmental biologist Margaret McFall-Ngai has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, a one-year grant that will support her investigation into how animals interact with their natural complement of microbes.

Along the way, she hopes to explore a theory about the origin of immunity among vertebrates.

The invasion of zebra mussels in the Great Lakes may be followed by a takeover from one of its close cousins.

While zebra mussels have been a scourge of the Great Lakes waterways, they too may become the victims of unwanted company, namely the quagga mussel which appears to be a growing presence.

Suzanne Peyer is a doctoral candidate with the UW-Madison Zoology Department who carried out some of the research. She says for some reason, quagga mussels just seem to be doing better. While slower to colonize, ultimately they seem to be the ones that are currently being more dominant in the calmer habitats.

Invasive quagga mussels are replacing their equally destructive cousin, the zebra mussel, in calmer waters in the Great Lakes, Wisconsin researchers said.

While zebra mussels still dominate in fast-moving streams and rivers, the larger quagga mussels prefer soft lake bottoms of sand and silt, said Suzanne Peyer, a doctoral candidate in the zoology department of the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

In this, the International Year of Astronomy, there may be no better way to explore our solar system than by bicycle.

Itâ??s just a little more than 23 miles to Pluto, which is in a marsh near Mount Horeb. Neptune is between Verona and Riley, so you can plan a stop at the Riley Tavern to toast your departure from the realm of the inner planets.

Welcome to what its originators are calling one of â??the largest scale models of our solar system in the universe.â?

Jim Lattis, a UW-Madison astronomer and director of UW Space Place, said the project may be one of his all-time favorite outreach efforts.

Research by botanists at the UW-Madison has revealed a disturbing secret lurking in Wisconsin’s forests.

Suspecting that increasing development might be affecting forests in ways we cannot see, UW-Madison botanist Don Waller led a study of plants on the floor of forests throughout the state. Comparing those surveys with data collected in the 1940s and 1950s, the researchers found far fewer species of the shrubs, grasses and herbs that have traditionally been found in the understory of Wisconsin forests.

The federal National Institutes of Health received 49,015 comments on its proposed human embryonic stem cell research funding rules. NIH actually received slightly more comments, about 50,000, in 2000, concerning draft guidelines for human embryonic stem cell research proposed by the Clinton administration.