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.
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The establishment of a $9 million research institute on the far west side of Madison will make the city the center in the United States for genetic research, not just on influenza viruses but, more important, on the deadly strain of bird flu that many scientists fear could spark a global epidemic.
A new flu institute at UW-Madison and a new flu test at a state lab on campus are among Wisconsin’s expanding efforts to help the state and the country prepare for a flu pandemic, Gov. Jim Doyle announced Wednesday.
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.
The establishment of a $9 million research institute will make Madison a national hub for genetic research studies on influenza viruses, information needed to fight the deadly strain of bird flu that’s circulating globally, Gov. Jim Doyle announced Wednesday.
California’s $3 billion embryonic stem-cell research program has ignited a race among states drafting similar tax-funded efforts that could boost demand for human egg donors.
Wisconsin emerged today as a leader in key research and testing in preparation for a possible influenza pandemic.
Gov. Jim Doyle announced during an Influenza Preparedness Summit at the Concourse Hotel that the University of Wisconsin-Madison plans to launch a new Institute for Influenza Viral Research. He also noted that the State Laboratory of Hygiene has been chosen by the Centers for Disease Control to do testing for antiviral drug resistance as a pilot program for other states.
….The new institute will house the research program of UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine researcher Yoshihiro Kawaoka, a professor of pathobiological science who is recognized as an international leader in the study of influenza.
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.
Madison will soon be home to a $9 million research institute dedicated to influenza viruses such as the one that causes avian flu, which public health officials fear could spark a global pandemic that would kill millions.
Gov. Jim Doyle plans to officially announce today that the Institute for Influenza Viral Research will be built in the University Research Park, on the far west side of Madison.
He is expected to make the announcement during a summit in Madison on pandemic flu preparedness. The meeting will include presentations by Alex Azar II, deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Yoshihiro Kawaoka, a world-renowned flu researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is expected to play a pivotal role in the new institute. He was in Japan on Tuesday and could not be reached for comment.
Quoted: Matthew Wolff, a cardiologist and associate professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin Medical School.
Milwaukee, Wis. ââ?¬â? 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.
MILWAUKEE (AP) – The Medical College of Wisconsin should halt its practice of using live dogs in laboratory exercises, a physician group says.
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine urged the school’s administrators in a letter to phase out its use of live dogs in classrooms.
The Medical College uses dogs as part of the school’s Human Physiology course. The class is required for all first-year students although attendance at the lab is optional, said Jean-Francois Liard, the instructor.
….In a recent exercise to explore the circulatory system, 52 dogs were operated on while under anesthesia and then euthanized
Quoted: Sean B. Carroll, a scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Quoted: Patrick Masson, a genetics professor at the University of Wisconsin, laid off four lab workers and expects to let another two go by this summer because he stands to lose $700,000 in NASA grants.
Local television news airs plenty of health stories, but they’re often short on context and sometimes contain harmful errors, a study says.
Mentioned: Kenneth Goldstein, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
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.)
MADISON – The University of Wisconsin has a reputation for being a national leader in technology transfer.
Now a bill is making its way through the Legislature that proponents say would make it easier for faculty and researchers to turn their ideas into start-up companies.
COLUMBIA, Mo. – Science, faith, politics and morality swapped turns in the spotlight Thursday at a University of Missouri-Columbia symposium on stem cell research.
Though the two-day panel discussion, held Wednesday and Thursday, was billed as an apolitical effort to better understand the contentious research technique, signs of a potential statewide vote in November on stem cell research were hard
Q: Why do carrots spark in the microwave?
A: We scoured the UW-Madison campus until we found John Booske, a professor of electrical and computing engineering, who told us that vegetables that contain a lot of water and are cut with sharp edges, as carrots often are, can produce light in the microwave.
U.S. Sens. Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl of Wisconsin must keep pushing a bill to expand federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research.
The bill, which cleared the House, is stuck in the Senate as lawmakers jostle for and against it.
In the beginning, vitamin D research at the University of Wisconsin was all about building better bones, especially for children.
But “vitamin D therapy isn’t just for bones anymore,” pioneering UW-Madison scientist Hector DeLuca told a crowd of 250 at the Overture Center Tuesday night in a rare public lecture.
Now, he said, the vitamin D frontiers include developing treatments for psoriasis, dialysis patients, diabetes, osteoporosis, prevention of hip fractures, and even cancer.
Purdue University has opened an investigation into “extremely serious” concerns regarding the research of a professor who said he had produced nuclear fusion in a tabletop experiment, the university announced yesterday.
The loss of one of UW-Madison�s world-known engineering centers has caused the University to lose millions of dollars in grants and exposed the obstacles researchers on campus endure to seek adequate funding for their projects. As a result, it may be difficult to attract researchers to campus.
You sip a bitter gin and tonic, then the bartender says the next drink will be sweet. But he plays a trick, giving you another gin and tonic.
Your brain still thinks the second drink is sweeter, according to a study by UW-Madison researchers that found a neurobiological manifestation of the placebo effect.
A proposal to provide $2.5 million in state seed money to promote collaborative bio-medical research between the Medical College of Wisconsin and four other colleges in the region is in trouble because of concerns about what the money might be used for. Namely, embryonic stem cell research.
A proposal to provide $2.5 million in state seed money to promote collaborative bio-medical research between the Medical College of Wisconsin and four other colleges in the region is in trouble because of concerns about what the money might be used for. Namely, embryonic stem cell research.
Liquid crystals, which help display information on cell phones and laptops, could also prove handy in growing stem cells, UW-Madison researchers say.
More compassion and meditation are needed in psychology and academia today, according to neuroscientist Richard Davidson.
Davidson, a professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, gave his lecture “Be Happy like a Monk” on Thursday in Milwaukee Central Library’s Centennial Hall, 733 N. 8th St.
Start thinking about sex, and imagine a couple from your parents’ generation indulging. What’s your reaction?
….John DeLamater’s research suggests that the level of an older adult’s sexual desires and activity will depend, in part, upon whether he or she has had lifelong negative attitudes about older generations. The UW sociology professor’s ongoing work is commissioned by AARP.
MILWAUKEE (AP) – The political battle over embryonic stem cells may keep the state from funding collaborative research between the Medical College of Wisconsin and four other colleges.
The Biomedical Technology Alliance, known as the BTA, has lobbied the state for $2.5 million that would be matched by private funds to promote shared research. But the Legislature is expected to wrap up most of its business Thursday.
Chickens are in the news yet again, although not for the reasons one might suspect.
Scientists from the universities of Wisconsin-Madison and Manchester, U.K., have reason to rejoice after a successful experiment, which caused hens to grow conical, saber-shaped teeth.
Gloria Ladson-Billings is considered one of the leaders in scholarship concerning the education of African-American children today. Most notably she is credited with the concept of “culturally relevant pedagogy,” which is explored in great depth in her book The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children, where she asks the African-American community in her study to identify good teachers (regardless of race) and develops profiles of those teachers.
The politically charged battle over embryonic stem cells is threatening to derail state funding for collaborative research between the Medical College of Wisconsin and four other southeastern Wisconsin colleges.
The Biomedical Technology Alliance, known as the BTA, has been lobbying the state for $2.5 million in seed money that would be matched by private funds to promote shared research.
In the last few years, scientists have discovered that the early Earth cooled much faster than had been believed earlier, a finding that could affect our understanding of how quickly life appeared.
John W. Valley, professor of geology and geophysics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, will speak on discoveries by himself and others, Wednesday at the Frontiers of Science Lecture, University of Utah.
MADISON, Wis. — Madison neighborhoods are speaking out to the world with their own Web sites.
To get an idea of how the Web site works, think of each Madison neighborhood as a local news bureau. On staff are the people who live and work there.
“The idea is to focus on local news, community news, grassroots news and make it accessible to everyone across the city,” said project coordinator Chris Long of the UW School of Journalism.
Gov. Jim Doyle plans to lead a delegation of more than 150 Wisconsin industry leaders to Chicago for BIO 2006, the world’s largest biotechnology conference, on April 9-12.
Doyle will join leading Wisconsin stem cell researchers Dr. James Thomson and Dr. Gabriela Cezar, as well as Wisconsin life science executives, economic developers, state government officials, lawyers, venture capitalists, researchers, technology licensing representatives and higher education professionals to promote Wisconsin’s life science resources.
Prospects of a clean energy future will bring college students from throughout the Midwest to the University of Wisconsin-Madison over the weekend.
The students will partake in the first-ever Midwest Student Clean Energy Conference, starting Friday and ending Sunday afternoon, to learn about energy issues and the threats of global warming due to the rampant consumption of fossil fuels. As of Wednesday, 230 people had registered for the free event, which is at the Humanities Building on the UW-Madison campus.
The conference is related to the Campus Climate Challenge, a competition among 500 colleges in the United States and Canada to slow the effects of global warming by reducing their greenhouse gas emissions by 90 percent by 2050.
A mild winter across the Midwest has resulted in the early thawing of lakes throughout the state, and as a result, Lake Mendota is covered with floating chunks of ice, or in some places, no ice at all.
Not only does bird flu pose a potential global health catastrophe, its threat to national security could dwarf Sept. 11, a public health expert told a Madison audience.
“I don’t say that lightly,” said Laurie Garrett, who lives next to the World Trade Center site in New York and witnessed the 2001 terrorist attacks.
Garrett, former a medical and science writer for Newsday, is the only journalist to have ever been awarded the three big P prizes – the Pulitzer, the Polk and the Peabody. She spoke as part of the UW-Madison’s Distinguished Lecture Series to an audience of about 200 at the Union Theater.
Dear Editor: Madison Gas & Electric recently announced that it will end coal burning by 2011 at its Blount Street plant in downtown Madison, significantly reducing air pollution from the plant.
Students can learn more about dirty coal and all of the issues surrounding energy production and global warming by taking part in the first annual Midwest Student Energy Conference in Madison this weekend.
….Registration is free and open to students in any university across the Midwest.
Gov. Jim Doyle announced plans Wednesday to lead 150 prominent Wisconsin biotechnology leaders to BIO 2006, a Chicago conference, according to a press statement from his office.
BIO 2006 is the largest biotechnology conference in the world and will be held April 9 through April 12, 2006.
When Sheri Meland finishes her dissertation, it’s almost certain to garner lots of media attention. The topic is the impact of a person’s looks on their success – or lack thereof – in life.
She used 3,000 of the more than 10,000 people in the famed Wisconsin Longitudinal Study. The WLS subjects, all graduates of Wisconsin high schools in 1957, are among the most studied people in history, with researchers checking back with them in 1975, 1992 and 2002.
Meland has completed all of her research, but only a little bit of her analysis; with two young children and a booming business, finding time has been a challenge.
MADISON – Once again, some Wisconsin legislators are pushing state restrictions on human embryonic stem cell research – restrictions that would effectively move beyond President Bush’s 2001 order and put Wisconsin’s homegrown researchers at a competitive disadvantage.
Rather than adding a layer of unnecessary regulation, state lawmakers should await guidance from two panels — one federal and the other international — that have recently announced separate efforts to reinforce ethical guidelines for human embryonic stem cell research.
MADISON, Wis. — University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers released the results on Monday of a study that appears to reconfirm the public health effects touted by supporters of smoking bans.
MILWAUKEE ââ?¬â? Smoking-related diseases took more than 8,000 lives in Wisconsin during 2004, or more than 22 per day, according to a report released Monday.
Tobacco caused 81 percent of all lung cancer deaths and 15 percent of all heart disease deaths in the state, according to the report by the Wisconsin Division of Public Health, University of Wisconsin Comprehensive Cancer Center and the American Cancer Societ
SAN FRANCISCO ââ?¬â? The stem cell institute that California voters willed into existence with their approval of a $3-billion bond measure goes on trial today.
Plans state lawmakers unveiled to adopt an embryonic stem cell research policy have received opposition on the grounds of ethical irresponsibility and unnecessary scientific advancement.
Following a January publication of FierceBiotech that named UW-Madison as one of five places in the world that have shown the most promise and commitment to biotechnology innovation, the state has made concerted efforts to expand and build up the industry to cement its position on the world�s biotechnology stage.
The “Moovada” has everything that most sport utility vehicles owners would want – good gas mileage, low pollution and decent performance.
You won’t find the vehicle on car lots yet. Rather, it’s the name given to a souped-up Chevrolet Equinox by a team of University of Wisconsin-Madison engineering students – their entry in a nationwide contest to build a more fuel- efficient car.
On Thursday, the students received a boost when automotive parts supplier Johnson Controls Inc. presented them with a turbocharged hybrid battery system to use in the crossover SUV.
An assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison will receive a fellowship award for her research proposal to study how people choose to do online research.
Kyung-Sun Kim, in the School of Library and Information Studies, will receive the 2006 Samuel Lazerow Fellowship from the Association of College and Research Libraries for her anticipated study.
The University of Wisconsin-affiliated WiCell Research Institute, the nation�s first stem cell bank and leading stem cell research institution, will soon lose one of its top researchers.
Is Josef Stalin making a comeback among Russia’s youth? Researchers Sarah Mendelson and Theodore Gerber, a professor of sociology at UW-Madison, recently wrote that many young Russians “do not view Stalin ââ?¬â? a man responsible for millions of deaths and enormous suffering ââ?¬â? with the revulsion he deserves.”
School science days typically fall into two categories, according to Tom Zinnen, a biotechnology outreach specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
There’s the science fair, where certain students research their projects for a week, then present their findings to the rest of the student body. And there are the “science spectaculars” where a scientist comes to the school and, with the help of two or three students pulled on stage, performs for a watchful audience.
On Wedesday, Zinnen brought a third type of science day to Lowell Elementary School in Waukesha.
Rudyard Kipling may have told us how the leopard got its spots, but it has taken two UW- Madison researchers to tell us how the chicken lost its teeth.
There is a connection between poor reading-readiness and naughtiness in pre-school boys, research suggests.
The link between illiteracy and delinquency in teenagers is well known, but it has not been clear which comes first and when the problem occurs.
Quoted: Research co-author Dr Terrie Moffitt.
Matthew Harris didn’t flinch at the crocodilian-like teeth flashing six inches in front of his face. He didn’t scream or whimper, either.
Instead, he sat back, shook his head and leaned in for a better look.
That’s because Harris, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison last year, wasn’t looking into the mouth of a giant, dentition-ridden reptile.
The first scientist hired at Madison’s WiCell Research Institute has been named director of the University of Connecticut’s new human embryonic stem cell laboratory, the university said Tuesday.
Ren-He Xu, a developmental biologist and expert in growing human embryonic stem cells, will receive a tenure track faculty appointment along with the opportunity to develop a new stem cell institute for the university. Xu is a staff scientist at WiCell with no faculty appointment.
