Dear Editor:
….How much alcohol should a pregnant woman consume? The only safe amount is none. That $5 million to study monkeys should have been used to actually help people. Let’s stop wasting our limited resources on arcane scientific research that helps no one but the scientist banking the federal grant.
Dawn Kubly, Cambridge
Gov. Jim Doyle made a bold and reassuring statement in front of stem cell scientists from around the world last week in Madison.
Doyle declared the political fight on stem cell research over in Wisconsin.
Youngsters close to the age of three who develop wheezing with the virus have a 30-fold risk of becoming asthmatic by the time they turn six.
The older the toddlers are when they catch the virus, the greater their chance of developing the condition, which is called Rhinovirus, according to the research.
Around 5 million people in Britain, including more than 1m children, suffer from asthma.
Daniel Jackson, from the University of Wisconsin, who led the team which carried out the study, said that the Rhinovirus was a “significant predictor” that children would go on to become asthmatic.
The armed forces and cigarettes have a long history, going back to World War II. That’s when Ancel Keys, a scientist who spent his career studying the relationship between diet and disease, helped the Cig2 military develop an adequate meal suitable for combat. Named K-rations, after Keys, the meal considered sound at the time contained bacon, canned cheese and dextrose tablets. For relaxation, the military threw in gum and cigarettes, triggering massive nicotine addiction in young GIs.
The post-war tragedy unfolded over decades as smoking by WWII veterans led to a nine-fold increase in lung cancer deaths by 1980.
Cigarettes are no longer freebies in field K-rations, but the nicotine addiction rate in the military is still sky high, according to a news release put out by the University of Wisconsin’s Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention.
Quoted: “It’s a very large magnetic field strength for a galaxy by any standard,” confirmed astronomer and galactic magnetism researcher Ellen Zweibel of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Madison-based Stratatech Corp. announced Monday the successful completion of a clinical trial of its StrataGraft human skin substitute. The company said the trial showed StrataGraft performed comparable to the current standard of care.
The clinical trial was designed to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of StrataGraft in patients with major skin trauma that required temporary skin replacement before “autografting” — the transplantation of live skin tissue from one part of a patient’s body to another.
….The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Michael J. Schurr was the trial’s principal clinical investigator.
UW-Madison prides itself on numerous aspects that allow it to stand out amongst other major universities, such as the revolutionary research it conducts or its reputation for competitive sports programs. Unfortunately, the latter mention tends to outdo the first in terms of campus notoriety.
I was in Madison, Wisconsin, last week at the 2008 â??World Stem Cell Summit,â? a gathering of hundreds of scientists, pharmaceutical company reps, patient advocates and policy folks united in their evidence-based faith that stem cells are going to revolutionize biology and medicine.
Iâ??ve been to a fair number of stem cell meetings over the years, but this one was remarkable in several respects. For one, it was held in Madison, where Jamie Thomson and his colleagues first discovered and isolated human embryonic stem cells ten years ago this fall. So it was something of a decadal celebration and homecoming for the Wisconsin team. Go badgers!
Madison, Wis. – Stratatech Corp. has announced the successful completion of a clinical trial of its StrataGraft human skin substitute.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Michael J. Schurr was the trial’s principal clinical investigator.
Madison, Wis. – Carolyn “Biddy” Martin is an alumnus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, but that wasn’t the only thing that convinced her to pursue the chancellor’s job following John Wiley’s decision to step down.
Interviewed at the World Stem Cell Summit, which was held last week in Madison, Martin said the UW’s leading edge work in life sciences, including stem cell research, also interested her in the job.
â??The cutting-edge research in the life sciences here in general piqued my interest in the position, but of course the stem research is really right at the leading edge of what is an enormously impressive life sciences infrastructure,â? said Martin, who came to the UW-Madison after serving as provost at Cornell University. â??It definitely played a role.â?
Geophysicists in the US are proposing a new magnetic field generated in the Earthâ??s core, the existence of which could help us understand why our planetâ??s magnetic moment has flipped several times in the past.
By measuring ancient field patterns frozen into the volcanic rocks of West Eifel in Germany and Tahiti in French Polynesia, Kenneth Hoffman of California Polytechnic University and Brad Singer of the University of Wisconsinâ??Madison have recorded the first data to suggest that the Earthâ??s dipolar magnetic field is accompanied by a second magnetic field with a distinct origin in the Earthâ??s core (Science 321 1800).
The new effort to help treat malaria is just one facet of a major undertaking to find new antibiotics. Last year Metcalf and his colleagues at the U. of I.’s Institute for Genomic Biology, chemistry professor Wilfred van der Donk, Zhao, chemistry professor Neil Kelleher, and biochemistry professor Satish Nair, received a $7.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to investigate just this. Jo Handelsman of the University of Wisconsin rounds out the research team.
SHREWSBURYâ?? It takes a few seconds to get a glimpse of the precious cargo loaded into the laboratory cooler that Dr. Gary Stein opens, mostly because of the frosty fog that billows out.
Then the air clears, and boxes of samples come into view: human embryonic stem cells.
Itâ??s the initial inventory for the new UMass Stem Cell Bank, a repository that organizers hope will come to hold more than 100 types of stem cells. Launched with a $7.7 million state grant, the bank is an early sign of Gov. Deval L. Patrickâ??s push to invest $1 billion in the life sciences in Massachusetts over 10 years to promote the stateâ??s economy. Starting Wednesday, the bank will begin accepting embryonic stem cell â??deposits,â? the first step in eventually making cells available to researchers.
Earth’s magnetic field is really two fields with two separate sources, argues paleomagnetist Kenneth Hoffman of California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo and geochronologist Brad Singer of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in a paper published in the Sept. 26 issue of the journal Science.
The new finding, published Thursday in the online edition of the journal Science, builds on the reprogramming work of teams led by Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka and James Thomson of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In November, both teams created cells that appear similar to human embryonic stem cells but do not require the destruction of an embryo. The cells are known as induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells.
Lucas Moyer-Horner crams his arm under a truck-sized boulder and pulls out a handful of peppercorn-like pellets. The dark brown scat belongs to a small animal that looks like a fur-covered Russet potato. American pikas inhabit high alpine talus slopes â?? rugged, steep places most people fear to tread, but Moyer-Horner scampers over like he’s in a playground. “Pika get me up high,” he says. “Grizzlies or elk wouldn’t.”
The University of Wisconsin-Madison zoologist has spent his summer hiking more than 500 miles of Glacier National Park to search for pika. He climbed peaks to spot their likely talus habitats and then surveyed the rubble of rock for signs of the rabbit-cousin â?? all to gain a baseline on the park’s population. Since heat intolerant pikas have been disappearing from the West, Glacier Park wants a starting point to chronicle the future of the endearing creature.
Researchers report that they have sidestepped a major technical hurdle in the generation of pluripotent stem cells from adult cells.
A team of Boston scientists developed a way to generate induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) — which are functionally similar to embryonic stem cells, but which can be produced from adult cells, rather than via the creation or destruction of an embryo — more safely than ever.
They say a picture is worth 1,000 words – but when it comes to science, one good picture might be worth 104 or 105 words, judging by this year’s winners of the International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge.
One winner is Ye Jin Eun and Douglas B. Weibel, University of Wisconsin-Madison, for “Polymazing.”
From UW Madison: With a photograph that embodies the unexpected – and sometimes breathtaking – outcomes of science, University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate student Jenna Eun has won second place in the 2008 Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge, sponsored by the National Science Foundation and Science magazine.
The image, “Polymazing,” appears in the Sept. 26 issue of Science, which Eun herself finds somewhat amazing, considering the subject of her photo arose completely by accident.
Q. Why do people get tan?
A. The ultraviolet portion of sunlight causes some skin cells to make more of a dark pigment called melanin, says Nihal Ahmad, an associate professor of dermatology at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health. Melanin has a protective role, because after formation it blocks some ultraviolet light.
On the closing day of the World Stem Cell Summit, speakers confronted a complex but inevitable question. After all of the talk about promising results when stem cells have been placed in animals and in laboratory dishes, has the science reached the point when stem cells can be tested in human patients?
Former Gov. Tommy Thompson told the World Stem Cell Summit Tuesday a meeting he had in the summer of 2001 with President George W. Bush led to Bushâ??s approval of limited embryonic stem cell research.
American patients frustrated with the pace of science in this country are increasingly going overseas for stem-cell treatments, a controversial trend that created sharp divisions Tuesday among attendees at the last day of the 2008 World Stem Cell Summit in Madison.
To many scientists, those promoting what is sometimes referred to as “stem cell tourism” are nothing more than the 21st century’s version of the snake oil salesman.
Fueled by sometimes desperate patients who are willing to travel the globe for cures, dozens of companies around the world are marketing injections of stem cells as life-changing treatments, or even cures, for everything from Parkinson’s and Lou Gehrig’s disease, to heart failure, spinal injuries and other tough-to-treat conditions.
“Medical tourism for stem cells is very controversial,” said Bernard Siegel, executive director of the Genetics Policy Institute and the driving force behind the World Stem Cell Summit, which concluded its two-day run at the Alliant Energy Center’s Exhibition Hall on Tuesday.
Calling it “a story that I guess I can tell now that President Bush is almost out of office,â? former Gov. Tommy Thompson today told the World Stem Cell Summit in Madison about an internal Bush administration battle over stem cell research that happened when he was serving as secretary of Health and Human Services.
The future of stem cell research in Wisconsin, as well as the rest of the nation, could hinge on the presidential election. That’s the message from the 2008 World Stem Cell Summit being held in Madison.
Medical advocacy groups are concerned that a research breakthrough is being politicized and will present a new obstacle to therapies that might someday result from embryonic stem cells . And the scientist who made the discovery says there will be challenges that a currently “risk-averse society” might have to accept. Shamane Mills reportsâ?¦ (Audio.)
Gov. Jim Doyle highlighted Wisconsinâ??s important role in the stem-cell industry during his keynote speech at the World Stem Cell Summit in Madison Monday.
Researchers from across the globe gathered at the World Stem Cell Summit Monday in Madison, stressing the need for further clinical trials funded by the federal government.
Gov. Jim Doyle addressed the World Stem Cell Summit in Madison Monday night and asked attendees to take one question back to the people of their state or country: Should â??science triumph over personal ideologies?â?
When University of Wisconsin-Madison scientist James Thomson announced a groundbreaking discovery in November of 2007 that ordinary adult skin cells had been reprogrammed to resemble embryonic stem cells, some jumped to the conclusion that the ethical debate surrounding this science could finally be wiped away.
That day, however, is not yet here.
So with the Nov. 4 election just six weeks away, some of the world’s most prominent stem cell researchers made it a point Monday to reiterate what they’ve been saying all along: Studies on stem cells from human embryos must continue for at least several more years while the new technique is tested and perfected.
Wisconsin is considered the birthplace of human embryonic stem-cell research, but the field may be taking up residence in California, with well-financed digs.
California is building a dozen institutes for the research, has awarded $614 million in grants and soon expects to recruit up to 1,000 scientists, the leader of that state’s efforts said Monday at the 2008 World Stem Cell Summit in Madison.
Stem cell experts said on Monday they hope the next U.S. president will end political curbs on embryonic stem cell research but some worry recent comments by Republican candidate John McCain suggest his past support for such research may be waning.
Both McCain and Democrat Barack Obama have said they favor easing restrictions on spending public money to finance embryonic stem cell research.
Treatment with genetically modified stem cells helped rats with a paralyzing disease live significantly longer, U.S. researchers said on Monday in a finding that could one day help humans.
Rats with ALS that were treated with the gene-engineered stem cells lived 28 days longer than untreated mice, the researchers told a conference.
It looks like students can be open-minded after all: When provided with the option to view lectures online, rather than just in person, a full 82 percent of undergraduates kindly offered that theyâ??d be willing to entertain an alternative to showing up to class and paying attention in real time.
A new study released today suggests not only a willingness but a â??clear preferenceâ? among undergraduates for â??lecture capture,â? the technology that records, streams and stores what happens in the classroom for concurrent or later viewing.
The study, sponsored by the University of Wisconsin-Madisonâ??s E-Business Institute, tackles the much-discussed question of studentsâ?? preferences for traditional versus online learning with unusual rigor.
Today, Governor Jim Doyle accepted the National Leadership Award from the Genetics Policy Institute for his support of biotechnology.
The Governor along with other stem cell research advocates spoke about Wisconsin’s role in the controversial field and it’s expansion.
This was the scene as Governor Jim Doyle gave the keynote address at the World Stem Cell Summit in Madison at the Alliant Energy Center.
MADISON, Wis. — The future of stem cell research in Madison as well as the rest of the nation could hinge on the presidential election.
That’s the message from the 2008 World Stem Cell Summit being held at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison.
“There is no question that these cells might serve as a new area of medicine — human regenerative medicine,” said Dr. Gabriella Cezar, noted UW researcher and chief scientific officer of Stemina, a biotech start-up based in Madison.
“There are 150 people on campus working on stem cell research,” Cezar told a summit audience, “and we’re doing the science to benefit patients.”
Madison, Wis. – James Thomson acknowledged that scientists are notoriously bad at predicting timelines, so when he was asked about the timing of potential therapeutic stem cell research breakthroughs at the World Stem Cell Summit, he was naturally cautious.
Thomson, speaking on the potential future benefits of induced pluripotent stem cells, has been more cautious than some stem cell research advocates when addressing its possibilities. It’s not that he isn’t enthusiastic about the potential of the research he ignited 10 years ago when he became the first scientist to isolate and develop methods to culture human embryonic stem cells, but he has no illusions about the degree of difficulty that lies ahead.
Milwaukee, Wis. – Citizens in southeastern Wisconsin overwhelmingly support embryonic stem cell research, according to a new poll released by Milwaukee Public Radio.
In the poll, they indicated strong support not only for embryonic stem cell research, but they believe that effective therapies will result from the research, and they believe by an overwhelming majority that continuing to conduct embryonic stem cell research is more important than allowing politics and religion to be injected into the debate.
Independent studies have found that like alcohol, grape juice can reduce the risk of blood clots and prevent LDL (â??badâ? cholesterol) from sticking to coronary arteries, among other cardiac benefits. One, conducted by scientists at the University of Wisconsin and published in the journal Circulation, looked at the effects of two servings of Concord grape juice a day in 15 people with coronary artery disease. After two weeks, the subjects had improved blood flow and reduced oxidation of LDL. Oxidized LDL can damage arteries.
Madison is hosting the World Stem Cell Summit. It runs through Tuesday, and combines science and policy in a field of research that might someday help those with Parkinson’s, Alzheimers and diabetes. Shamane Mills reportsâ?¦ (Audio.)
Stem-cell researchers, advocates and industry leaders will flock to Madison Sept. 22-23 for the 2008 World Stem Cell Summit, an event to inform the public of new developments in stem-cell research.
Some of the worldâ??s top stem cell researchers gathered on the University of Wisconsin campus Sunday to preview this weekâ??s World Stem Cell Summit and highlight the need for greater public understanding of the field.
Some of the nation’s top embryonic stem cell research advocates say they are growing concerned that Sen. John McCain will backtrack on his previous support for the work if elected president.
The Republican senator from Arizona has supported lifting President Bush’s ban on using federal money to create new stem cell lines from surplus embryos and to award more grants to researchers studying them. His rival for the presidency, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, has a similar position on the research that holds promise to treat a range of disease.
Quoted: UW law professor and bioethicist Alta Charo and researcher Tim Kamp
This week Madison is playing host to the World Stem Cell Summit, and Sunday’s “Lab on the Lake” segment featured inspirational speaker Sam Schmidt, the former Indy Racing League driver who now is chairman of the Sam Schmidt Paralysis Foundation.
“I am really proud to be here and be a part of (the conference),” said Schmidt, who also now owns his own race team. “There is so much information here, and I am still learning every day about the research that is going on everywhere (on stem cells).”
Though stem cell research has become a hot-button issue in the political arena, there is a lot of confusion about what it really involves. To educate the public, those who are putting on the World Stem Cell Summit offered a free primer on this burgeoning area of research on Sunday. Dubbed “Lab on the Lake,” the event was open to people of all ages and interests.
Two groups said Friday that they have appealed the federal government’s decision to uphold a stem-cell patent held by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.
Here’s what James Thomson, the UW-Madison researcher who ushered in the era of stem cells, igniting a fierce ethical debate and encouraging the hopes of millions of patients, wants you to know about him: nothing.
“I want my work to be known and widely understood, but I’d prefer to be invisible if I could be,” said Thomson, 49.
A UW-Madison bioethicist has stirred up the stem-cell world by saying scientists who created some of the embryonic stem-cell lines approved for federal funding didn’t properly obtain consent from embryo donors.
A study by Robert Streiffer, a professor of bioethics and philosophy, raises new questions about President Bush’s policy limiting federal research grants to the 21 lines, or colonies, of stem cells derived before August 2001.
Although hundreds of scientists from around the world have come to Madison for the 2008 World Stem Cell Summit, the kickoff Sunday at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Pyle Center was aimed at the non-scientist, the person who may not have seen the cells before and may have only a vague idea that the research is promising or controversial.
Ann Arbor Democrat Tom Weider knows that your perspective is skewed if you don’t get out of town now and then.
“I always say ‘… as Ann Arbor goes, so goes Berkeley and Madison,'” says the long-time party activist.
Kidding aside, he was ready with a prediction in a recent appearance on WEMU’s “Lynn Rivers Show”: Obama 54 percent of the vote; McCain 46. That’s rounding off the votes that will be cast for minor party candidates.
MADISON, Wis. — It was all about stem cells on Sunday, as dozens of scientists and researchers took part in an educational seminar about the future of regenerative medicine.
Members of the public attended Lab on the Lake, a pre-conference all-day pubic event and festival Sunday, held at the Pyle Center on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/mccain/1176616,embryo092108.article
MADISON, Wis. â?? Some of the nationâ??s top embryonic stem cell research advocates say they are growing concerned that Sen. John McCain will backtrack on his previous support for the work if elected president.
The Republican senator from Arizona has supported lifting President Bushâ??s ban on using federal money to create new stem cell lines from surplus embryos and to award more grants to researchers studying them. His rival for the presidency, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, has a similar position on the research that holds promise to treat a range of disease.
Tim Kamp, a UW-Madison researcher who is co-chairing the summit, said he still believes the political climate for the work is more favorable than the past.
Leaders in the stem cell industry have converged on Madison for a couple of days. The city is hosting a worldwide summit on stem cell research. Scientists believe it could someday provide cures for diseases such as Parkinsonâ??s or cancer. While the industry has changed, Wisconsin has remained at the forefront of the research. The industry has changed somewhat, but Wisconsin has remained at the forefront, and thatâ??s why itâ??s ground zero this week. WUWMâ??s Marti Mikkelson reports.
MADISON, Wis. — Sam Schmidt has lived life for 44 years on four wheels.
He was an Indy car driver until a crash in 2000 changed his life forever.
“The things that you miss are the things you take for granted, I mean, being able to hug my wife, being able to pick my kids up, put them on my shoulders,” said Schmidt.
Santa Monica, Calif. – In a brief filed with the U.S. Patent Office’s board of appeals and interferences, consumer watchdog groups have cited two legal errors allegedly made by a patent examiner in confirming a Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation patent on human embryonic stem cells.
On July 18, 2008 the California-based and renamed Consumer Watchdog (hereafter â??Watchdogâ?), reexamination requester of three of related Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation’s (WARF) stem cell patents, filed a Notice of Appeal in the United States Patent Trademark Office (â??the PTOâ?) relating to one of those patents. That Notice and the concurrent press release brought back to the public eye the stem cell reexamination process which was initiated in July 2006 when Watchdog filed its reexamination requests. This is to update and revisit that dispute.
Wisconsin is the focal point of stem cell science this week. But is the state falling behind? Madison is hosting the World Stem Cell Summit through Tuesday. Ed Fallone is president of the nonprofit group Wisconsin Stem Cell Now. “It’s a great opportunity for us to use the increased public interest in the topic . . . to get the information out to the public, so that people can learn more about stem cell research and participate in the debate in an informed manner,” says Fallone, referring to a primer on stem cell research in Wisconsin, produced by his group. It’s aimed at the general public and addresses questions on science, funding, ethics and advocacy
More than 800 people are expected to meet in Madison for the World Stem Cell Summit.
One attendee is turning a personal tragedy into advocacy for medical research and treatment.
Indy Car racer Sam Schmidt’s life changed forever when he suffered a crash 8 years ago. The accident left him paralyzed from his chest down.
Q. Why are some of us “morning people” while others are naturally “night owls”?
A. All animals, including humans, experience daily ups and downs in physiological processes, such as body temperature and hormone secretion, as well as in behaviors such as sleeping and waking. Known as circadian rhythms, these patterns are governed by a core “clock” in our brains that’s primarily tuned to the 24-hour cycle of light and dark.
