Category: Research

Gov. Jim Doyle announced Tuesday that a patented anti-anxiety compound developed at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee has been licensed by a global pharmaceutical company.

On Thursday, March 23, I [Bill Lueders] co-moderated a debate about the use of animals in research between Dr. Eric Sandgren, the chair of the UW’s All Campus Animal Care and Use Committee, and Rick Bogle of the Alliance for Animals’ Primate Freedom Project. My report about the debate covers much of the discussion and questions there, though I wrote that “I was a bit disappointed that both Sandgren and Bogle did not provide more specific answers to some of the questions asked.”

Bogle’s response to this is available after the break.

What many scientists are calling “the next big thing” is really very small. Nanotechnology uses extremely tiny particles to make lots of things better and stronger. It involves the manufacture and manipulation of materials on an extremely tiny scale – particles so small that they can’t be seen with the unaided eye.

The unit of measure, a nanometer, is one-billionth of a meter – comparable in size to 10 hydrogen atoms, or roughly one-50,000th the width of a human hair. (Nano is from the Greek nanos, which meant little old man or dwarf.)

But these tiny structures – be they carbon nanofibers, liquid crystals or something else – pack a large potential, for good or bad.

Stem cell patents held by a University of Wisconsin organization are so restrictive that they create an impediment to research, according to a science journal published Friday.

The authors, California stem-cell researcher Jeanne F. Loring and patent attorney Cathryn Campbell, said the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation patented stem cells so broadly that other researchers can do little without infringing on the foundation’s patents.

The article appears in Friday’s issue of the journal Science.

If anyone came looking for compromise at Thursday night’s public debate between animal rights activist Rick Bogle and UW-Madison professor Eric Sandgren, they picked the wrong venue.

Powerful patents on human embryonic stem cells held by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation may be more of an impediment to research on the prized cells than restrictions imposed by President Bush, an article in today’s journal Science charges.

(MADISON) A worldwide competition ends today in Madison, with gold, silver, and bronze medals at hand for the winners. Contestants are judged on their presentation, form, and sharpness, along with age, veining, and even odor in hopes of taking honors at the 2006 World Championship Cheese Contest.

UW Scientists have been using animals in their research for at least 15 years and animal activists have been protesting for just as long.But for only the 4th time at the UW, an organized debate and a civil one at that.A standingââ?¬â??room only crowd filled Chamberlin Hall on the UW campus.

An international team of researchers, led by University of Wisconsin-Madison flu expert Yoshihiro Kawaoka, has identified the biological roadblock that prevents the avian influenza virus, H5N1, from transmitting easily between people.

NEW YORK – Why doesn’t bird flu spread easily between people? Scientists think they’ve found a reason.
The virus prefers to infect cells in the lung instead of such areas as the nose and windpipe, so it’s not easily coughed or sneezed out into the air, new research says.

Lake Monona glistened in the bright sunlight outside the big windows of the Grand Terrace of the Monona Terrace Convention Center. Inside, oblivious to the picturesque setting, a team of international judges was scrutinizing, smelling and tasting 1,792 samples of the world’s best cheeses. It’s the 2006 Biennial World Championship Cheese Contest sponsored by the Madison-based Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association.

(Photo shows Center for Dairy Research’s Mark Johnson judging)

Standing in a large room where men in white coats monitor an array of instruments and silver tubing connects several giant chrome vats, one might not expect this lab�s product to be served in a waffle cone. But at the University of Wisconsin Dairy Plant located in Babcock Hall, the sweet smell of ice cream fills the air.

Wisconsin flexed its biotech muscles once again last week, this time in an area of medicine that is at the top of everybody’s to-do list: researching the viruses that cause influenza.

Welcome to Wisconsin, the flu capital of North America.

Don’t take that title the wrong way and run screaming for the nearest border. Wisconsin has yet to become a hot spot for the spread of avian influenza � and, it can be hoped, won’t become one. However, it may be the place where a possible pandemic is monitored and even controlled.

MADISON, Wis. — The UW unveiled plans and suggestions Monday about how to incorporate the Rennebohm building into new plans for a state of the art research center.

UW officials said the university could add on or build around the old building, but they would prefer to demolish it, reported WISC-TV.

MADISON, Wis. – An influenza researcher whose work is key to preparing for a flu pandemic will expand his program at a $9 million center planned for a Madison research park, the University of Wisconsin-Madison announced Wednesday.

The new Institute for Influenza Viral Research will house the laboratories of UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine researcher Yoshihiro Kawaoka.

Madison: Most people in Wisconsin probably haven’t worried too much about the avian influenza, but state health officials say they’ve been worrying for you.

The Wisconsin Summit on Pandemic Influenza is one of the few conferences where participants hope all their planning is unnecessary.

UW officials say the proposed $9 million Institute for Influenza Viral Research will be an essential part of fighting away a possible worldwide flu pandemic. It will be a 20,000 square foot facility, strictly for flu research. The lab will be run by by UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine researcher Yoshihiro Kawaoka.

Craig Werner, 54, of the University of Wisconsin and colleague Doug Bradley, a 58-year-old Vietnam veteran, have interviewed hundreds of Vietnam vets about the music that affected them and has remained with them.

Milwaukee, Wis. � The first chancellor of research in the history of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee said Friday that UWM is trying to change its image from a university of access to a university of research, and in the process help Milwaukee build a knowledge-based economy.

Lewis Friedland thinks there are a lot of great Madison stories that not enough people know about.

A professor of journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Friedland wants to give Madisonians like Wasser a way to tell their stories.

For the better part of two decades, Richard Weindruch, a professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has fed half of a colony of 78 rhesus monkeys a diet adequate in nutrition but severely limited in calories — 30 percent fewer calories than are fed to the control group.

(UNDATED) Millions of Americans get their health news from local TV broadcasts, but a new study gives a shaky diagnosis of most coverage.

There are a lot of health stories on the local news, but according to a joint study done between the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, many of these reports are lacking. After reviewing nearly 3,000 health-related stories from the top 50 media markets across the country, researchers found inaccuracies or a lack of practical information in many reports. (Fifth item.)