What would cause a mild-mannered Clark Kent of a mold to rear up like a demented superhero? Wisconsin scientists have found the apparent answer in a heat-sensitive biological switch, a crucial key to understanding how harmless soil fungi can transform themselves into virulent yeast cells when inhaled into human lungs.
In what could be a boon to development of vaccines and targeted therapies, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in collaboration with a team of international researchers, has created a streamlined, hardy form of the E. coli bacterium by reducing its DNA to its bare essentials.
Even in a constant state of jetlag, Yoshihiro Kawaoka is a fiercely productive flu researcher. Wonder what he could accomplish with a little bit of sleep?
If Yoshihiro Kawaoka owned a country, its citizens would be well protected from a bird flu pandemic.Confronted with a pandemic, Kawaoka says he would close his country’s borders and release a vaccine based on the live, but weakened, bird flu virus. Some people might fall ill from the vaccine strain, but far greater numbers would benefit. “The immune response provided by live virus, that is going to be the one that really protects humans,” Kawaoka says.
Gov. Jim Doyle signed an executive order making a commitment to market Wisconsin as the leader in the stem cell industry Tuesday. Doyle signed the order after touring the Cell Biology lab at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. Wis.
In keeping with his plans to expand biotechnology research in Wisconsin, Gov. Jim Doyle announced Tuesday the state�s new goal to capture at least 10 percent of the stem cell market by the year 2015.
Gov. Jim Doyle signed an executive order Tuesday directing the state Department of Commerce to spend at least $5 million over an indefinite period of time to encourage more stem cell companies in Wisconsin.
Although manufacturing and farming quickly come to mind whenever one thinks of Wisconsin exports, some of the state’s most valuable products are its advances in life sciences.
The state must do a much better job of harnessing that scientific capital for its own economic well-being and future prosperity. These issues were outlined in a series of articles this week by Journal Sentinel reporters Kathleen Gallagher and Susanne Rust.
WAUWATOSA, Wis. ââ?¬â? Gov. Jim Doyle directed the state Tuesday to spend $5 million to help recruit stem cell researchers to Wisconsin.
The state Department of Commerce will spend the money marketing the state as a leader in stem cell research under the executive order the governor signed at the Medical College of Wisconsin.
Twelve women are among the 72 newly elected members of the National Academy of Sciences, the academy said on Tuesday. That’s down from the record 19 women elected last year. Several UW-Madison faculty members were among the honorees.
The Wisconsin Capitol Rotunda will be alive with displays of undergraduate student research today for this yearââ?¬â?¢s ââ?¬Å?Posters in the Rotunda.ââ?¬Â
Although the long-term future of human embryonic stem cell research in Wisconsin depends on a political consensus, the issue does not fit neatly within the lines of Republican or Democratic, conservative or liberal.
In an effort to reaffirm the state�s commitment to stem-cell research, Gov. Jim Doyle will be making a major announcement today at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.
The Legislature is prepared this spring to make a down payment on a University of Minnesota request for $366 million to build five bioscience research laboratories in the next 10 years.
The state of California has been working its way through a list of thorny issues surrounding its groundbreaking Proposition 71 — $3 billion in funding for embryonic stem cell research that voters approved in 2004
A California state judge has ruled that legal challenges against the constitutionality of the state’s $3-billion stem-cell initiative have no merit.
Two University of Wisconsin-Madison professors will be featured in a new television documentary on global warming. It will premiere on HBO at 6 p.m. today (April 22), which is Earth Day.
Jonathan Foley and Jonathan Patz study climate change and its potential impacts at the UW’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. They are among the experts interviewed during the one-hour program, which is called “Too Hot to Handle.”
Two high-profile California companies – neither of which makes a profit – are the business face of embryonic stem cells in the United States.
Geron Inc. and Advanced Cell Technology Inc., which moved to California from Massachusetts in February, have publicly carried the torch for the promise of embryonic stem cells to produce therapies for spinal cord injuries and for diseases ranging from diabetes to Alzheimer’s.
Both are linked to Michael West, Advanced Cell Technology’s top executive and chief scientific officer. West founded Geron and oversaw its funding of some of the research that led to University of Wisconsin-Madison scientist James Thomson’s isolation of human embryonic stem cells in 1998.
For years, two of Wisconsin’s least-known exports have been among its most valuable: the intellectual and investment capital that help power the economic engines of states such as California and New York.
The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, among this country’s most successful university patenting and licensing organizations, has licensed most of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s life sciences technologies to out-of-state companies.
The State of Wisconsin Investment Board – the 25th biggest pension fund in the world, managing $76 billion – has used firms that focus on places such as Boston and the Silicon Valley to make virtually all of its venture capital investments in young businesses.
The work of Wisconsin stem cell scientists is re-emerging as some of the most promising in the world, eight years after the era of human stem cell research dawned in a lab here.
The focus on fundamental research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has been eclipsed at times by the quest for dramatic breakthroughs and massive government funding elsewhere.
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=418178
For years, two of Wisconsin’s least-known exports have been among its most valuable: the intellectual and investment capital that help power the economic engines of states such as California and New York.
The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, among this country’s most successful university patenting and licensing organizations, has licensed most of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s life sciences technologies to out-of-state companies.
The State of Wisconsin Investment Board – the 25th biggest pension fund in the world, managing $76 billion – has used firms that focus on places such as Boston and the Silicon Valley to make virtually all of its venture capital investments in young businesses.
Now human embryonic stem cells, first isolated in UW research labs, are providing a once-in-a-generation opportunity to change that dynamic.
Anyone who has a strong affinity for women with blue eyes and golden locks can thank the last ice age, according to a recent study in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior.
Despite the project�s recent approval, some state legislators are still concerned with details regarding the construction of the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery.
Gov. Jim Doyle moderates at the State Building Commission meeting Wednesday. The Commission approved the building of a biotechnology research facility on campus. (Justin Koenig/The Daily Cardinal)
The State Building Commission agreed to pay $50 million in state funding for the preliminary phase of the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery Wednesday, finalizing approval by a seven-to-one vote. The Institute would provide an interdisciplinary biotechnology research facility on the UW-Madison campus.
Global warming is putting the planet in crisis, and most people have little solid knowledge about it, says a group of UW-Madison professors.
They are trying to change that by banding together Saturday, which is Earth Day, to hold a five-hour teach-in to educate the public on what needs to be done to solve the problems global warming causes.
If all goes as planned, the University of Wisconsin may see the on-campus construction of a premier biotechnology research institute begin as soon as next December.
Madison – The state Building Commission Wednesday voted 7 to 1 to approve the construction of a major biomedical research center on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.
With the vote, the commission took the final step necessary to launch the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, expected to be a major hub for stem cell and other biomedical and scientific research that will be the first of its kind in the Midwest.
Stem cells in the brain have enabled many lab discoveries and soon will be tested in children with a rare disease, but it could be years or decades before possible treatments for brain disorders are available, experts say.
One of the main reasons for the slow progress: the science is so complex, controversial and expensive, big drug companies are staying far away, said Alan Colman, chief executive officer of ES Cell International in Singapore and a creator of the cloned sheep Dolly nearly a decade ago.
Message to the State Building Commission:
Wednesday you will be considering a proposal for a $150-million public-private hub for biomedical research at UW-Madison. This new kind of “sci-tech” research center, called the Wisconsin Institutes of Discovery, would give our state a chance to lead the nation in curing disease, creating jobs and training the next generation of leaders.
Don’t blow it.
Tuck the memories of hot fudge sundaes and grilled Danish into tissue.
With regrets all around, the Madison Landmarks Commission on Monday decided the Rennebohm Building at 1353 University Ave. isn’t a city landmark.
That unanimous decision means that UW-Madison can bring a little less guilt to the city Plan Commission Wednesday when they unveil the first stage of the Institutes of Discovery, a $375 million state-of-the-art research center to be built on a wedge of land between University and Randall avenues and West Johnson and Charter streets.
State Sen. Scott Fitzgerald of Juneau, Wis., wants state officials to put stem cell research in a different building � or at least behind different walls � from other kinds of scientific research.
His reasoning is that because embryonic stem cell research is funded privately because of concerns by some that it requires the destruction of the embryos, it should be clearly separated from other types of research that are funded through state taxpayer money.
Madison, Wis. ââ?¬â? A new diagnostic tool that might play an important role in rapidly detecting viruses that cause avian flu and other respiratory illnesses is close to passing a validation test being conducted at University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics.
Malformed proteins that cause chronic wasting disease in deer can adhere to minerals in soil and remain deadly, a new UW-Madison study says.
More than a dozen governors made appearances last week at Bio 2006. But states now chase molecular biologists the way they once chased smokestacks. And biotechnology’s progress and its potential has states and countries’ scrambling to establish themselves as centers – or at least participants – in what is considered the industry of the future.
While many undergraduate students work in labs on campus, people rarely hear about the real scientific research they perform. But a group of undergraduate students at the University of Wisconsin is about to change this.
Chicago ââ?¬â? A stem cell scientist from Harvard University dropped by Wisconsin’s pavilion at this week’s international biotechnology convention and noted, with a hint of admiration, that it was abuzz with activity.
“I really think there’s more action around the Wisconsin exhibit than anywhere else I’ve been on the (exhibit) floor,” he said.
UW-Madison moved up to fifth last year from eighth in 2004 in the rankings of universities or university systems with the most intellectual property activity, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced.
UW-Madison was awarded 77 patents in 2005, up from 64 in 2004 and the most in the Big Ten.
California’s $3-billion stem cell program has encountered repeated setbacks since it was approved by voters 17 months ago. Now it faces an entirely new and potentially even more worrisome challenge arising from two powerful patents ââ?¬â? patents No. 5,843,780 and No. 6,200,806, to be exact ââ?¬â? which cover all human embryonic stem cells and the method by which they’re made.
Patents are supposed to stimulate innovation. That’s why they exist. But it appears that these two patents, held by a foundation affiliated with the University of Wisconsin, may exert a dangerous monopoly over all future research in the field ââ?¬â? one that may pose an even greater long-term threat to stem cell science than the Bush administration’s federal funding ban.
UW-Madison faculty, staff and students received 77 patents through the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation in 2005, making UW-Madison the nationââ?¬â?¢s fifth-most ââ?¬Å?productiveââ?¬Â intellectual property university, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced April 6.
University of Wisconsin inventors and researchers celebrated a banner year in 2005, as UW climbed in the rankings of universities nationwide in number of patents awarded.
A new UW-Madison class about global AIDS offers no shortage of guest speakers – researchers who have met sufferers of the disease in Africa, scientists who are working in their campus labs on a possible cure.
But students in the three- credit course, designed as a “capstone experience” for upperclassmen, said they’re also learning a lot from each other.
Wisconsin brought in a star of a different sort. James Thomson, the University of Wisconsin biologist who won a spot on the cover of Time magazine after being the first to isolate human embryonic stem cells, joined his state�s governor at a presentation focusing on biotech opportunities in their region.
ââ?¬Å?Wisconsin isnââ?¬â?¢t some place scrambling to get in the game,ââ?¬Â Gov. Jim Doyle said. ââ?¬Å?We lead the game.ââ?¬Â
Gov. Jim Doyle led a group of Wisconsin scientists to Chicago Monday to attend the world�s largest biotechnology conference.
April is proving to be a big month for Wisconsin and the biosciences industry. First of all, the spectacular, $50 million contribution to a new research hub from the Morgridges is a huge boost for biomedical research and the role it plays in the state’s economic development.
MADISON, WIS. ââ?¬â?? The task for Mark Johnson and Jean-FranÃ?§ois Chamba this morning is simple: sample 23 different kinds of soft goat’s-milk cheese. Not some havartis, some Swiss, some cheddar. Just soft goat’s milk. Twenty-three kinds.
CHICAGO – Madison may not be the biggest biotech community in the nation, but the area is drawing plaudits on at least two fronts at the International BIO convention here.
A study touts the wide range of biotech jobs in the Madison area; meanwhile, a Middleton High School biotechnology teacher, Kathryn Eilert, has won a $10,000 national award.
This is an exciting time for science, especially biotechnology, in Wisconsin:
The state is launching the first phase of the $150-million Wisconsin Institutes of Discovery, a public-private center for biomedical research at UW- Madison.
CHICAGO ââ?¬â?? The global biotechnology industry will face many serious issues over the next year, ranging from ethical and regulatory fights to the rigors of engineering better biofuels and bioproducts. But few of those challenges will compare with what immediately confronts the 20,000 convention visitors at BIO ââ?¬â?¢06.
Wisconsin investors stepped up to grow their own, putting at least $50 million into young companies in 2005, according to a report that will be released today at the biotechnology industry’s annual conference.
The state fell short, however, of a goal developed five years ago of having $200 million in annual venture capital funding. In fact, Wisconsin’s venture capital ranking dropped to 35th in 2005 from 26th in 2004, according to the study, called “Risk Capital in Wisconsin: A Progress Report.”
In other news, the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery will encourage collaboration with researchers from other centers in the state such as the Medical College of Wisconsin and Marshfield Clinic, said Elizabeth L.R. Donley, general counsel at the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.
Gov. Jim Doyle is leading the largest Wisconsin delegation ever to BIO 2006 today, the world�s largest biotechnology symposium in Chicago.
Joining Doyle will be stem cell pioneers Dr. James Thomson and Dr. Gabriela Cesar. The three will speak about major biotechnology developments in Wisconsin.
Thumbs up to University of Wisconsin alumni John and Tashia Morgridge, for their generosity to their alma mater. The Morgridges donated $50 million to the university to help build two research centers. Their money, along with $50 million from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, will help build the first phase of the Wisconsin Institutes of Discovery. According to the UW, there will be a private center and a public center, both devoted to scientific and medical research. The donation from the Morgridges ââ?¬â? John is the board chairman of Cisco Systems ââ?¬â? is the largest in school history.
THUMBS UP: To University of Wisconsin alumni John and Tashia Morgridge, for their generosity to their alma mater. The Morgridges donated $50 million to the university to help build two research centers. Their money, along with $50 million from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, will help build the first phase of the Wisconsin Institutes of Discovery.
It’s not one of the big players, but Wisconsin has big biotech dreams.
Armed with a budget that’s nearly three times bigger than last year’s and its largest delegation ever to the 14-year-old event, Wisconsin will begin marketing its growing biotech effort today to a global audience of more than 17,000 in Chicago at BIO 2006, the Biotechnology Industry Organization’s annual conference.
UW-Madison�s avian-flu research may receive more lab space after a UW System Board of Regents committee approved a measure Thursday to lease space at the University Research Park. This space would serve the Department of Pathobiological Sciences and the UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine. The Physical Planning and Funding Committee also approved a reconstruction of Chadbourne Hall to commence in coming months.
SUTHERLAND, South Africa ââ?¬â? Really good astronomy requires three things: a really dark sky, a really powerful telescope and really talented scientists. The nighttime sky here, in this desolate, brush-strewn desert called the Karoo, makes metaphors about coal mines at midnight seem pallid.
A growing number of states are creating programs to aid human embryonic stem cell research in the absence of congressional support for the promising but controversial work. Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich, a Republican, signed a bill Thursday to spend $15 million for stem cell research. Maryland is the fifth state since 2004 to approve spending taxpayer money on such research. California, Connecticut, Illinois and New Jersey also have approved state-funded research programs. At least four other states are debating bills or ballot initiatives to promote stem cell research, says Alissa Johnson of the National Conference of State Legislatures.
The chairman of the board of Cisco Systems and his wife have donated $50-million for the proposed Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, which will include two new science centers to be built near the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and will include facilities for university research.
UW-Madison stem cell patents may restrict other universities from furthering their own research, due to restrictions and high fees enacted by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.
Mentions that last year, University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers reported finding a link between overweight middle-aged men and amyloid beta, the protein that accumulates in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison, already a global leader in scientific research, is wisely taking steps to stay in the forefront, with the help of the largest individual gift it has ever received, $50 million from alumni John and Tashia Morgridge. The money will help construct a novel hub for biomedical research on campus – bringing together scholars from various disciplines to work on specific projects.
Elizabeth Donley, general counsel for the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), told California stem-cell researchers at a major conference recently that WARF will demand a significant chunk of royalties from any of California’s efforts.
The Wisconsin foundation, which is affiliated with the University of Wisconsin, announced at the conference that it holds two patents with extraordinarily broad claims to the use of embryonic stem cells until the year 2015, and that it intends to enforce the patents.
