While lifting the Bush administrationâ??s restrictions on federally financed human embryonic stem cell research, President Obama intends to avoid the thorniest question in the debate: whether taxpayer dollars should be used to experiment on embryos themselves, two senior administration officials said Sun
Little more than 10 years after University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher James Thomson first isolated and cultured human embryonic stem cells, President Barack Obama is poised Monday to reverse Bush-era restrictions on federal funding in a field that holds huge potential but generates intense controversy.
Shares of companies developing stem cell therapies surged Friday evening on word that President Obama on Monday is expected to overturn restrictions that have choked funding for academic stem cell research.
President Obama pledged on the campaign trail to overturn the 2001 policy, which bans government funds for research that involves harvesting new embryonic stem cells. President George W. Bush, who set the policy, said the process is immoral because it destroys human embryos.
President Obama plans to sign an executive order today largely ending eight years of limits on federal financing of human-embryonic-stem-cell research that have tangled university laboratories in bureaucracy while slowing advances in one of the most promising fields of medical research.
Mr. Obama is acting just three weeks after he signed an economic-stimulus measure that allocates more than $10-billion for medical research (The Chronicle, February 25). His move will now free some of that money for an avenue of work fraught with ethical and political dilemmas and yet loaded with potential for fighting mankindâ??s toughest diseases.
Fire crews were called Saturday to the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus to deal with a fire in the Engineering Centers building.
The building was evacuated. Authorities said that the fire was likely caused by a researcher putting test tubes into an oven, which is a standard procedure.
It is the moment some scientists have been waiting for. Monday, President Barack Obama is expected to overturn an 8-year limit on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.
These so-called master cells can turn into any type of cell in the body. Scientists believe their exploration and manipulation will lead to treatments for diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and spinal cord injuries.
Researchers say the limits slowed progress of discoveries.
“The situation became so absurd,” said Professor Ronald Kalil at the UW School of Medicine,” That if you were working with these lines in a lab in which you had equipment that was funded by the federal government, you couldn’t use that equipment to look at the cells. In some cases, people just picked up and they went off campus.”
President Barack Obama is expected to sign an executive order on Monday reversing restrictions on federal funding of human embryonic stem-cell research.
In Madison, where the cells were first derived in 1998 by University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher James Thomson, the long-expected move should expand stem-cell research even as it diminishes the use of Thomsonâ??s cells nationwide, a campus scientist said.
“The demand for (Thomsonâ??s) cells will decrease,” said Dr. Tim Kamp, co-director of the universityâ??s Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center. “But this will allow us to use stem-cell lines that were derived under more optimal conditions.”
President Barack Obama is expected to sign an executive order on Monday reversing restrictions on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.
A senior administration official said the president will hold an event at the White House to announce the move. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the policy had not yet been publicly announced on Friday.
Post-herpetic neuralgia, a complication of shingles, can be so exquisitely painful that some sufferers can’t stand for clothes to touch their skin during an episode.
So the idea of treating the pain with lots of capsaicin, the active ingredient in hot chili peppers, might seem odd.
But that’s exactly what scientists, such as Dr. Miroslav Backonja of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, have been studying with some success.
Noted: “Simply put, it takes about twice as much biomass to replace an equivalent weight of coal,” says Ken Ragland, UW-Madison emeritus mechanical engineering professor. Coal contains roughly 12,000 British thermal units of heat per pound, while dry biomass has about 6,000 to 9,000.
But energy yield is hardly the only consideration, he adds. “You also have to think about the moisture content. Biomass doesnâ??t start out dry â?? a green tree is half water.”
Carl E. Gulbrandsen, WARF managing director, told the monthly WisBusiness.com luncheon that the new federal stimulus package is good news for UW-Madison research.
â??The university is in the sweet spot of the stimulus package,â? Gulbrandsen said Monday, singling out projects like the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery being built on campus, and the medical research, bio-energy and green energy sectors.
He said WARF, which helps spur UW-Madison research then licenses results to the private sector, is an â??83-year-old start-upâ? that has had â??one home run after anotherâ? dating back to Vitamin D discoveries in the 1920s.
Rep. John Culberson’s Web site shouts that the country should “just say no to federal spending,” and the Texas Republican boasted at a House of Representatives hearing Tuesday that he has a 100 percent rating from the American Conservative Union because he consistently opposes wasteful government spending. But Culberson makes an exception, he told his colleagues on the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related, for spending on scientific research and science education, given the contribution those things make to the country’s economic stability and national security.
One bright spot in the gloomy economic news recently is the success of biotech firms. Many are hiring, even during a tough economic time.
The jobs aren’t for everyone because they require a science-specific degree or some specialized training. But for qualified applicants, biotech companies are one industry that is still hiring.
FluGen is one of many area biotech companies still hiring in a tough economy, partially because of support from the state and the University of Wisconsin.
New research suggests that high levels of calcium in the bloodstream may increase a man’s risk of dying from prostate cancer. If verified in future studies, determining levels of calcium in blood could assist doctors and patients in making decisions regarding treatment.
Two climate experts told a crowd at the University of Wisconsin Thursday Wisconsinâ??s climate and economy will suffer consequences as a result of climate change, but state officials and scientists are already working hard to help the state adapt.
Exquisitely detailed and beautifully symmetrical, the snowflakes that David Griffeath makes are icy jewels of art. But don’t be fooled; there is some serious science behind the University of Wisconsin-Madison mathematician’s charming creations. Although they look as if they tumbled straight from the clouds, these “snowfakes” are actually the product of an elaborate computer model designed to replicate the wildly complex growth of snow crystals.
Major changes to conflict-of-interest rules, including a ban on doctors giving promotional talks for drug companies, have been recommended by a task force of doctors and health professionals at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
In addition to banning so-called dinner talks, the group said, doctors should be required to disclose specific amounts, to within $1,000, of money they receive from drug and medical device firms.
University of Wisconsin evolutionary biologist Sean Carroll talks about his new book, Remarkable Creatures, which chronicles the daring-do of some of natural history’s brightest stars. (Audio.)
University officials said Tuesday the construction of the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery building is on track for completion in December 2010.
A Madison biotech firm is getting a state loan to help develop and finalize clinical trials of new regenerative tissue products.
Stratatech Corp. is getting a $500,000 loan from the Wisconsin Department of Commerce for help funding an $11 million project to develop cell-based, tissue-engineered products for wound care.
The Madison City Council voted early Wednesday morning to approve an application for federal funds to grow the city’s bio-agriculture industry, but held off on committing any of its own dollars yet.
….The incubator would provide start-up companies in the bio-agriculture industry — a combination of biotechnology, agriculture, food science and sustainability — with lower rents and shared resources such as greenhouses, technology and field testing sites.
The random, symmetrical beauty of snowflakes has been recreated in a computer program, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.
It took four years for two mathematicians from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and the University of California, Davis, to develop the computer model’s theory and perform the computations.
“Even though we’ve artfully stripped down the model over several years so that it’s as simple and efficient as possible, it still takes us a day to grow one of these things,” Wisconsin researcher David Griffeath said in a statement.
When they are up and running in 20 months, the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery should be a â??cauldron of exciting interactionsâ? between researchers, social scientists, artists, educators and the public, former UW-Madison Chancellor John D. Wiley said today.
â??Ten years from now, I hope weâ??ll look back on a lot of great new stuff and say this is where it started,â? said Wiley, who is the interim director of the public half of the new research center that backers hope will be a model of interdisciplinary and collaborative science.
Wiley was joined at a Wisconsin Innovation Network luncheon by Carl Gulbrandsen, WARF’s managing director and board chairman for the Morgridge Institute for Research (MIR), the private half of the $150 million, 165,000-square-foot WID project. It is going up on the 1300 block of University Avenue between Randall Avenue and Orchard Street and is expected to open in the fall of 2010.
Directors of the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery announced Friday 12 finalists to possibly take part in thematic research after the buildingâ??s opening in 2010.
University Health Services physician Eric Heiligenstein sets the record straight regarding a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article.
Four faculty members from UW-Madison recently received a prestigious, competitive research award.
Twelve UW-Madison faculty members have been named finalists to compete for five spots in the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, the public part of a $150 million public-private research building going up on the 1300 block of University Avenue.
The institute, to focus on biotechnology, nanotechnology and information technology, is expected to open next year.
Q How do antidepressants work?
A Depression is caused by lower levels of brain chemicals called neurotransmitters that influence mood, known as dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine. They work by helping to regulate the traffic in nerve signals between cells, say Ron Diamond and Jack Nitschke, psychiatrists in the UW School of Medicine and Public Health and the College of Letters and Science.
If you are one of the thousands of people who moved to the Hudson area because you wanted â?? fill in the blank â?? a town not suburb, a good school district, a thriving independent business community, safety, sports leagues, riverside location or access to parks, then you owe it to yourself and the Hudson community to attend this presentation.
â??Where we Spend our Money (and how) Makes a Differenceâ? is a free event open to the public from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 25, at The Phipps Center for the Arts, 109 Locust St.
â??Anyone who cares about the quality of small-town life is the audience we want to attract,â? said Rick Brooks, the presenter who specializes in community development, marketing, health and social change. He is currently the outreach program manager in the Department of Professional Development and Applied Studies at UW-Madison.
Raising a child with a disability causes more daily stress and long-range health problems than parenting a child without disabilities, U.S. researchers say.
Stress and health ills were greater among parents of disabled children, U.S. researchers found.
The study, published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, found parents who had children with disabilities — that included attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and bipolar disorder — reported having at least one stressor on 50 percent of the study days compared with 40 percent among other parents.
There is no cure for the common cold, but there could soon be a way to stop the spread thanks to work done in part by UW Madison.
UW researchers are working with the University of Maryland Medical School to tackle the common cold.
Researchers have been working on this for decades, but it is difficult because the common cold is made up of at least 99 different viral strains. The researchers have succeeded in mapping its entire genome using the latest in DNA technology. Now, they can see how they are related and how they are different.
UW-Madison and Florida State psychology professors released results of their new research study revealing President Obamaâ??s influence in the way whites perceive blacks.
Two Madison-based biotechnology firms are collaborating to advance research into human embryonic stem cells.
Stemina Biomarker Discovery Inc. and Promega Corp. announced the collaboration Monday.
They’re calling it the “Obama effect.”
Even before Barack Obama had moved into the White House, America’s first black president was responsible for a noticeable decrease in racial prejudice â?? particularly on the nation’s college campuses â?? according to a new study.
“We saw a dramatic decrease like we’ve never seen before,” said Ashby Plant, a psychology professor at Florida State University and co-author of the “Obama effect” report, targeted for publication in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
Plant and a colleague at the University of Wisconsin, psychology professor Patricia Devine, started their study once Obama secured the Democratic Party nomination last summer. Working with graduate students, they each interviewed roughly 150 non-black students at FSU and UW, attempting to gauge a shift in racial bias.
In a step toward independence from embryonic stem cells, University of Wisconsin scientists have shown stem cells induced from human skin can form the cells essential to the makeup and function of the human heart.
Q: Why do lakes freeze from the top down?
A: Ice is less dense than water, which is why ice floats. The density of liquid water is determined by its temperature. The density of water is highest at a temperature of about 40 degrees. So, why is that important?
The continued growth of the UW-Madison Institutes for Discovery and how that $150 million project fits into Wisconsin’s $1.1 billion academic research engine will be the topic of the Feb. 24 luncheon meeting of the Wisconsin Innovation Network in Madison.
The event starts at 11:30 a.m. and the presentation at 12:30 p.m. at the Sheraton hotel, 706 John Nolen Drive.
Most parents want a healthy environment for their young children and Appleton Education Foundation is helping them tap into cutting-edge research that underscores why it’s so critical.
Wednesday, the foundation, along with the Waisman Center of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will begin its second Brain to Five speaker series, this time on environmental influences that affect early brain development.
University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly observed recently that the 38,000 research-and-development jobs in the state now outnumber the paper industry’s total.
The observation has great import for a state trying to figure its way out of a deep recession and a heavy dependence on its historic manufacturing sector. The innovation economy is upon us, and Wisconsin, with its world-class educational infrastructure, is well positioned to take advantage of its brain power.
Scientists at UW-Madison were crucial in mapping the entire genetic code of the common cold, researchers announced Thursday, likely leading to relief for many worldwide.
UW-Madison researchers have discovered a way to convert stem cells developed from adult skin cells into functional heart-muscle tissue, a breakthrough that could change the way the medical community treats heart disease.
In a step toward independence from embryonic stem cells, University of Wisconsin scientists have shown stem cells induced from human skin can form the cells essential to the makeup and function of the human heart.
A new kind of stem cells developed by UW-Madison researcher James Thomson performs like his old kind in a lively way.
The new cells can be turned into heart cells that beat in a lab dish, other scientists on campus have shown. The achievement could lead to a better understanding of heart disease and therapies crafted from the skin of patients with heart problems.
Scientists have advanced on the sneeze by cracking the code of the common cold.
Researchers at UW-Madison and other institutions have sequenced and analyzed the genetic instructions for the 99 known strains of rhinovirus, the most frequent cause of the cold.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor Guri Sohi was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.
Sohi is among 65 engineers and nine foreign associates elected in 2009. Those named to the academy were peer-elected for their exceptional contributions to engineering research, practice or education.
Wayne McGown, a man who held top positions under six state governors and four University of Wisconsin-Madison chancellors before being chosen as the first director of the University Research Park, passed away Tuesday after a battle with cancer. He was 79.
The only child of Homer and Amy McGown, Wayne grew up in Stevens Point and went on to graduate from UW-Madison with a bachelor’s in accounting and a master’s in political science.
Scientists have unraveled the genetic code of the common cold â?? all 99 known strains of it, to be exact. In fact, the genetic blueprints showed that you can catch two separate strains of cold at the same time â?? and those strains then can swap their genetic material inside your body to make a whole new strain.
It’s why we’ll never have a vaccine for the common cold, said biochemist Ann Palmenberg of the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, who led the three teams that assembled the family tree of the world’s rhinoviruses.
In work that extends science’s power to alter the basic unit of a human being, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have taken skin cells that were reprogrammed back to their embryonic origin and grown them into functional, pulsing heart cells.
New research findings out of Wake Forest University School of Medicine and the University of Wisconsin may help provide some direction for men diagnosed with prostate cancer about whether their cancer is likely to be life-threatening.
As the agriculture industry is in the spotlight following cases of salmonella, a local expert is sharing his thoughts on ways to make food safe for consumers.
Feeding millions of people around the world starts with feeding animals. While some farmers use antibiotics to help grow livestock, a local expert said he believes it carries risk.
“The micro-organisms that are in the gut of these animals become resistant, and when people get infected with these organisms, they’re getting resistant organisms. They’re getting infections, (and are) infected with organisms that are multi-drug resistant,” said Dr. Dennis Maki, an expert on infectious diseases at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine.
Curing the common cold, one of medicineâ??s most elusive goals, may now be in the realm of the possible.
Researchers said Thursday that they had decoded the genomes of the 99 strains of common cold virus and developed a catalog of its vulnerabilities.
Scientists announced Thursday that they have cracked the genetic code of all known species of the common cold virus, a major step forward in the effort to develop a cureâ??and perhaps even a vaccineâ??or the common cold.
The findings, published this week in the journal Science, highlighted why researchers have found it so difficult to build effective drugs to combat the virus, which sickens millions each year and sends thousands of children with asthma to the hospital.
Scientists have unraveled the genetic code of the common cold — all 99 known strains of it, to be exact.
But don’t expect the feat to lead to a cure for the sniffling any time soon. It turns out that rhinoviruses are even more complicated than researchers originally thought.
In fact, the genetic blueprints showed that you can catch two separate strains of cold at the same time — and those strains then can swap their genetic material inside your body to make a whole new strain.
Scientists are boldly predicting we may soon have to stop complaining that if we can put a man on the moon, why can’t we cure the common cold?
Researchers have cracked the genetic code for all 99 known strains of the human rhinovirus, the virus that accounts for the majority of human cold infections.
The work, published this week in the journal Science, could lead to the first effective treatments for the common cold within five years, researchers say.
It may be possible to use skin cells to create stem cells that can repair damaged hearts, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison report.
In late 2007, UW-Madison researchers showed that skin cells could be turned back into stem cells. In this new study, these induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells were used to create working heart-muscle cells (cardiomyocytes).
Humanities scholars at the University of Wisconsin-Madison could do a better job of communicating their value to the public, Chancellor Biddy Martin said at a lecture Wednesday.
Speaking on the topic of “humanities in the public,” Martin explored the challenges of translating academic research in subjects like English, history and philosophy to broad audiences.
Q: How do snowflakes grow so symmetrically?
A: Many people have ascribed the symmetry of snowflakes to an intelligent designer, but there are less mysterious explanations for their seeming perfection, says UW-Madison mathematics professor David Griffeath.
Evolutionary biology isn’t just something you do in the lab or the library: Over the past two centuries, scientific pioneers have had to weather seasickness, survive shipwrecks and watch out for polar bears while they ferreted out the facts.
In his latest book, “Remarkable Creatures,” molecular biologist Sean B. Carroll recounts the rip-roaring adventure tales behind the great advances in the theory of evolution.
Genes may play a role in a person’s ability to empathize with others, suggests a U.S. study involving mice.
Researchers trained highly social mice to identify a sound played in a specific cage as negative by also having squeaks of distress come from a mouse in that cage. But a genetically different strain of mice that were less social didn’t make the same negative connection.
The Wisconsin Biotechnology and Medical Device Association is changing its name to BioForward Inc.
The announcement was made Wednesday at the association’s monthly breakfast at the MGE Innovation Center in University Research Park.
