Category: Research

MADISON, Wis., Jan. 30 (UPI) — U.S. and British researchers found a physiological difference between severe and non-severe forms of asthma.

The study, published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, compared lung function measurements from 287 people with severe asthma and 382 people with mild and moderate — non-severe — forms of the disease.

Not satisfied with the decision by the Medical College of Wisconsin to stop using dogs as live teaching tools, an animal rights group is now calling on the school to stop using pigs.

A multi-centre research project to investigate severe asthma has found a key physiological difference between severe and non-severe forms of the disease, a finding that could help explain why those with severe asthma do not respond well to treatment.

Ronald Sorkness, a physiologist at the University of Wisconsin in Madison is the lead author of the study.

Researchers who study the brain know that itâ??s far from an immutable object. â??Itâ??s much more plastic than most people think,â? said Giulio Tononi, a psychiatrist at the University of Wisconsin. â??Itâ??s changing all the time.â?

One area of change is the synapses, the connections between neurons, which are altered as the brain receives stimuli. â??What happens when youâ??re awake is you produce an overall strengthening of synapses,â? Dr. Tononi said. â??Thatâ??s good, because thatâ??s how you learn.â?

Washington, D.C. – In his final State of the Union address, President Bush praised a recent discovery that produces cells that act as human embryonic stem cells without destroying human embryos, and indicated his support for expanded federal funding for such research.

While Bush stopped short of making a specific funding proposal, he urged assembled members of Congress to expand funding for stem cell research that does not destroy embryos.

A UW study reveals low rates of vaccination for the nation’s puppies and kittens. They may be cute and cuddly, but the study by UW’s School of Veterinary Medicine reveals fewer than half of all puppies and kittens are being vaccinated. UW’s Dr. Ron Schultz says the low vaccination rate can be a real problem at animal shelters, and he’d like to see new efforts.

Social conservatives used to scowl at the work of UW-Madison stem cell scientist James Thomson, whom Doyle introduced during his speech. But Thomson has quickly become a pro-life hero for reverting human skin cells back to their embryonic state. The technique should eventually allow researchers to develop better drugs and even cures for disease without destroying — or even using — embryos.

MADISON, Wis. — Doctors at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine performed a first-of-its-kind surgery on an exotic yellow-footed tortoise.

The tortoise, named Baskin Robbins, lives at the Milwaukee County Zoo. His caretakers noticed that Baskin Robbins wasn’t walking and appeared to be in pain, so they sent him to Madison for a checkup.

“Baskin Robbins is here because he is lame, meaning he’s not bearing weight on his front left leg, and we think it’s because he had a problem with his humerus, which is the arm bone. Part of it has broken off, and that part needs to be removed so that he’s not lame and in pain,” said Dr. Gretchen Cole, a veterinarian at the UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine.

A biochemist at UW Madison is hoping his genetic research on algae may someday help the computer industry make thinner silicon chips. Gil Halsted reports.â?¦(Audio.)

Mentions that field studies in 2004, 2005 and 2006 by the University of Wisconsin-Madison concluded that cormorants did not affect yellow perch populations, a key sport fish in Lake Michigan waters.

WAUKESHA – A new study released by the University of Wisconsin-Madison says fewer than half of all people in the country are getting their puppies and kittens vaccinated, which could have disastrous results in the future. (Subscription required.)

In his speech, Doyle also praised University of Wisconsin-Madison stem cell researcher James Thomson, who was in attendance, and UW research teams for embarking on the next frontier of stem cell research – using skin cells to create new stem cells for use in medical research. He also noted the forthcoming groundbreaking on the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, a new research center that will foster collaboration between biotechnology, nanotechnology, and information technology.

MADISON, Wis., Jan. 22 (UPI) — U.S. scientists say the study of diatoms — algae that encase themselves in patterned, glass-like shells — might lead to an advance in computer chips.

University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers said the tiny unicellular phytoplankton build their hard cell walls by depositing submicron-sized lines of silica, a compound related to silicon.

Madison, Wis. – The University of Wisconsin-Madison professor who first isolated human embryonic stem cells said Tuesday that Wisconsin would have to spend $50 million annually on stem cell research to keep pace with California on a per capita basis.

James Thomson, who spoke on the past and future of stem cell research at the monthly luncheon of the Madison chapter of the Wisconsin Innovation Network, said Stanford and the University of California-San Francisco, alone, receive on the order of $15 million a year a piece.

New stem cell breakthroughs hold great potential for human medicine, UW-Madison researcher Jamie Thomson said today, but any therapies coming from them may be a decade or two off.

â??This will revolutionize human medicine, but mostly it is about the basic science and biology and having access to things we did not have access to before,â? he said, noting that transplantation of stem cells to the central nervous system will be particularly difficult.

The public hates negative ads. At least thatâ??s what the media and pundits offer up every election year.

But UW-Madison political science professor Ken Goldstein argues theyâ??re usually more accurate, more likely to focus on substance and policy, and more likely to spark votersâ?? interest and participation. In short, they work.

Goldstein said past claims that negative ads are detrimental to democracy are false and based on faulty assumptions. He builds his case in a new book â??Campaign Advertising and American Democracy.â?

The public hates negative ads. At least thatâ??s what the media and pundits offer up every election year.

But UW-Madison political science professor Ken Goldstein argues theyâ??re usually more accurate, more likely to focus on substance and policy, and more likely to spark votersâ?? interest and participation. In short, they work.

Scientists disarmed the Ebola virus by removing a single gene, providing a new laboratory tool that will help the development of drugs and vaccines against the lethal tropical disease.

Efforts to find ways of treating Ebola, a haemorrhagic fever that kills between 50-90 per cent of the people it infects, have so far been greatly held up by its extreme virulence. The extreme health hazard posed by the virus means that it can be studied only in highly specialised laboratories equipped to biosafety level four (BSL 4), the highest category of containment facility.

Scientists have made the lethal virus Ebola harmless in the lab, potentially aiding research into a vaccine or cure.

Taking a single gene from the virus stops it replicating, US scientists wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal.

Ebola, currently handled in highly secure labs, kills up to 80% of those it infects.

SCIENTISTS have disarmed the Ebola virus by removing a single gene, providing a new laboratory tool that will help the development of drugs and vaccines against the lethal tropical disease.

Efforts to find ways of treating Ebola, a haemorrhagic fever that kills between 50 and 90 per cent of the people it infects, have so far been greatly held up by its extreme virulence.

Chicago – US researchers have devised a way to genetically disarm the deadly Ebola virus in a development that could speed research into a vaccine against the bug or drugs to treat people who have been infected with it, a study released Monday said.

The investigators discovered removing a single gene from the virus prevents it from replicating or multiplying, effectively neutralizing the bug and making it much safer to study.

MADISON, Wis., Jan. 21 (UPI) — Contrary to the popular belief, the brain is busy consolidating information during sleep, the brain is actually shutting down, a U.S. study found.

Animal studies, published in Nature Neuroscience, found molecular and electro-physiological measures taken on rats showed the neurochemical processes underlying learning — synapses — actually weaken during sleeping hours.

The findings support the synaptic homeostasis hypothesis proposed by the study ‘s lead researchers Chiara Cirelli and Giulio Tononi of the University of Wisconsin, Madison. They said that during sleep the synapses actually “downsize” in preparation for a new round of learning during waking hours.

A ‘safe’ version of Ebola has been developed by researchers hoping to broaden opportunities to study the deadly virus. If approved by national regulatory authorities, the non-infectious virus could be studied in a broader variety of labs, removing a major roadblock to finding a cure.

A type of algae found in oceans, lakes and wet soil could be used to create a new, faster generation of computer chips, U.S. researchers suggest in a study released Monday.

Marine diatoms, a unicellular algae, build their hard, patterned cell walls with microscopic lines of silica â?? a compound related to silicon, which is a key material for constructing computer chips and semiconductors.

“If we can genetically control that process, we would have a whole new way of performing the nanofabrication used to make computer chips,” lead researcher Michael Sussman, a University of Wisconsin-Madison biochemistry professor, said in a release.

CHICAGO (Thomson Financial) – US researchers have devised a way to genetically disarm the deadly Ebola virus in a development that could speed research into a vaccine against the bug or drugs to treat people who have been infected with it, a study released Monday said.

The investigators discovered that by removing a single gene from the virus, they can prevent it from replicating or multiplying, effectively neutralizing the virus and making it much safer to study.

Most people know it from experience: After so many hours of being awake, your brain feels unable to absorb any moreâ??and several hours of sleep will refresh it.

Now new research from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health clarifies this phenomenon, supporting the idea that sleep plays a critical role in the brainâ??s ability to change in response to its environment. This ability, called plasticity, is at the heart of learning.

Reporting in the Jan. 20, 2008, online version of Nature Neuroscience, the UW-Madison scientists showed by several measures that synapses â?? nerve cell connections central to brain plasticity â?? were very strong when rodents had been awake and weak when they had been asleep.

The deadly Ebola virus, an emerging public health concern in Africa and a potential biological weapon, ranks among the most feared of exotic pathogens.

Due to its virulent nature, and because no vaccines or treatments are available, scientists studying the agent have had to work under the most stringent bio-containment protocols, limiting research to a few highly specialized labs and hampering the ability of scientists to develop countermeasures.

A few sharp ice crystals ruin ice cream’s silky texture, as all connoisseurs know. An edible, tasteless antifreeze may soon come to the rescue.

The non-toxic antifreeze, made from a gelatin protein, could be added to any frozen food to prevent unappetizing ice crystals from forming, without otherwise affecting the food itself.

“This has been a major problem in frozen foods,” said food scientist Srinivasan Damodaran of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, who conducted the research. “Ice crystal growth can change properties of frozen food like texture. We live in Wisconsin â?? dairy country. We produce a lot of ice cream.”

Area parents eager to understand what’s behind their baby’s coos, their toddler’s meltdowns or their preschooler’s grasp of language are in luck.

The Appleton Education Foundation is hosting four leading “brain investigators” from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Waisman Center who will speak about brain development in young children in a series of free lectures beginning next month.

Far from resolving an epic moral quandary, last yearâ??s groundbreaking discovery that ordinary skin cells eventually could replace the use of human embryos in stem-cell research actually stoked the fiery debate over the cutting-edge science.

Religious opponents hailed the skin-cell breakthrough as proof that research involving the destruction of embryos is unnecessary and must end. Scientists countered that studies on stem cells harvested from human embryos must continue for at least several more years while the new technique is perfected. And the battle went on.

Guri Sohi, chairman of the Computer Science Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has talked candidly about the declining numbers of his department since the height of the dotcom era in 2000. At that point, the UW Computer Science Department granted about 170 bachelor’s degrees annually, and now is down below 80 per year. It also once granted 100 master’s degrees annually, but that has declined to about 50 per year.

Meanwhile, PhDs have remained stable at roughly 20 per year, but there are some ominous national trends. Roughly 75 percent of all doctorate degrees granted nationally in electrical engineering are going to non-U.S. citizens.

UW-Madison’s experience mirrors the national trends, and several efforts are underway to reverse it. One Wisconsin effort is Powered Up, a consortium of businesses and schools in Dane County working to increase awareness in information technology careers. The group was formed in 1999, and is now engaged in talks with the Information Technology Association of Wisconsin to expand statewide.

Carlos Santiago’s enterprise on Milwaukee’s east side looks a lot like a business start-up: The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee has a great idea and big ambitions, but it is strapped for cash and hears plenty of people saying, “Show me.”

Edible antifreeze developed by a US researcher could keep ice cream tasty and smooth, and prevent other frozen foods from being ruined. The antifreeze contains proteins similar to those that help “snow flea” insects survive winter without freezing solid.

The taste of good ice cream depends on a blend of flavour, temperature, and texture â?? what food scientists call “mouth feel”.

Food chemist Srinivasan Damodaran at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, US, thinks he has a better solution. He is experimenting with edible antifreeze made from gelatin, which is much more effective at preventing ice crystals from ruining ice cream, he says.

Two of the biggest experiments at the South Pole relate to astrophysics and would rank as major projects anywhere in the world. One is a $19.2 million telescope, run by the University of Chicago, that is looking into dark energy by locating the biggest structures in the universe, distant clusters of galaxies formed billions of years ago.

The other, called Ice Cube, involves freezing thousands of delicate sensors into the ancient, crystal-clear ice thousands of feet beneath the pole in a cube configuration 1 kilometer long on each side. The goal of the $280 million project, led by the University of Wisconsin, is to capture one of the smallest and most elusive things in the universe, subatomic neutrino particles.

Fox Valley Career Center game programming technology teacher Anna Schwein had her students focus on â??entertainmentâ? video games at the beginning of the fall semester in order for them to keep an interest in the topic.

However, there is more to the video game market than shoot ’em ups and sports games, and there is more to her class. A growing aspect of the industry falls under the â??edutainmentâ? genre, or games designed to help children learn while entertaining at the same time. Schwein plans to focus about one-third of the semester on this growing aspect of the industry, she said.

David Williamson Shaffer, assistant professor of learning science at the University of Wisconsin Madison, has devoted a significant amount of time to studying it, having written a book called â??How video games help children learn.â?

In the latest feat of stem cell wizardry, researchers have been able to create viable new lines of embryonic stem cells from human embryos that were not destroyed in the process.

The accomplishment is the newest wrinkle in a rapidly evolving effort to find ways to develop prized human embryonic stem cells without the ethical baggage that has plagued the field since its inception nearly a decade ago. Already, the new method is generating controversy.

This new method differs from a breakthrough late last year by University of Wisconsin-Madison and Japanese researchers in that it uses embryos, not genetically engineered skin cells. In the UW work, those skin cells appear to act like embryonic stem cells, but more research is needed before embryonic stem cell work could be abandoned