Category: Research

A new Web site developed by a UW meteorologist and programmer provides weather information in the palm of your hand.

Toxins and the fear of their misuse – especially since Sept. 11 – has changed life in the laboratory for many scientists.

Passed in 2002, the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act requires scientists doing research on any of a number of bacteria, viruses and toxins meet a variety of strict security measures, as well as have employees pass a federal background check. While some researchers say that the regulations are appropriate and reasonable, considering the potential for terrorism, others complain that the requirements impede their work on important issues.

“The constraints are reducing research effectiveness,” says Caitilyn Allen, a professor of plant pathology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

When Gov. Jim Doyle vetoed a ban on all forms of human cloning in November, he argued that despite what its supporters claimed, the legislation would go against Wisconsin’s history of biomedical innovation, specifically in the controversial field of embryonic stem cell research.
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“Continuing this research,” Doyle correctly observed then, “is a win-win for our state.” And, we would argue, for the world as well, since many scientists believe that the research may one day lead to cures for a variety of illnesses and ailments.

Less than two months later, scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have underscored the importance of this research with a development that moves their work closer to the day when it may one day actually reap therapeutic dividends.

(MADISON) Most people measure the scope of a disaster in how many human lives are lost or shattered. For students and staff at the University of Wisconsin�s School of Veterinary Medicine, the loss can also be felt in the many animals that are killed, abandoned or injured during a catastrophe. (5th item.)

The recent signing of a bill by President Bush that provides $50 million for reprocessing spent nuclear fuel has rekindled a highly charged debate on how to deal with nuclear waste.

Reprocessing exacerbates the problem of nuclear proliferation, is not economical and does not solve the problem of waste disposal, said Allison Macfarlane, a research associate in the Program in Science Technology and Society at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In the meantime, new technology for reprocessing spent nuclear fuel is being developed at a research center that is co-directed by a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor.

WASHINGTON, Jan 1 (Reuters) – Scientists at a laboratory affiliated with the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed a stem-cell culture medium free of animal cells and used it to derive two new human embryonic stem-cell lines.

UW-Madison scientists analyzing genetic data from many species in an attempt to construct the animal kingdom’s family tree, have hit a snag.

UW-Madison scientists have created two new embryonic stem-cell lines, the first grown without animal products, officials say, removing a major obstacle to their potential use as cell therapies in people.

All 22 stem-cell lines available for federal funding, including the five created by UW-Madison researcher James Thomson in 1998, have been grown with animal products such as mouse cells and cow blood proteins.

The creation of the first embryonic stem-cell lines without animal products is a research breakthrough that highlights, yet again, UW-Madison’s pre-eminence in the field.

The new lines also show how close stem-cell research is to life-saving cures and how much closer it could be if the federal government would ease its unreasonable funding restrictions.

Two UW-Madison projects to study advanced materials and fuels for current and future nuclear reactors have received a total of about $1 million in federal funding.

The funding is from the Department of Energy Nuclear Energy Research Initiative, which supports research and development under three initiatives: Generation IV nuclear energy systems, advanced fuel cycles and nuclear hydrogen.

Investigators at South Korea’s leading university announced Thursday that all of the cloned stem cell lines created by its disgraced star scientist are fake. The Seoul National University panel found that Hwang Woo Suk ââ?¬â? who until recently was celebrated as a pioneer in stem cell research ââ?¬â? lied and did not produce stem cells individually tailored to patients as he had claimed.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Genetically modified nerve ‘progenitor’ cells can be used as mini-pumps to deliver nerve growth factor to the brain, a new study in animals shows.

The results suggest such an approach could be used to treat Parkinson’s disease and other brain diseases in humans, Dr. Clive D. Svendsen of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and colleagues report.

Sean Carroll, professor of genetics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is the author of Endless Forms Most Beautiful, an introduction to the new science of evolutionary developmental biology written for the lay reader.

Officials at a South Korean university said Monday that they expect results next week from DNA tests meant to determine whether disgraced scientist Hwang Woo Suk made tailored stem cells, as he claims.

Q&A interview with UW-Madison researcher and author of a book on evolutionary developmental biology.

CHICAGO – To celebrate the 125th anniversary of its founding by Thomas Edison, the journal Science asked more than 100 of the world’s top scientists what they thought were the 25 most important scientific questions likely to be answered in the next 25 years.
The 25 big questions range from what is consciousness (the mysterious interplay of brain cells and neurotransmitters that conjures up awareness and the ability to ask questions) to what is the universe made of.

(MADISON) Science educators at the University of Wisconsin-Madison may soon be able to broadcast their lectures and research presentations via satellite to remote villages in India. It�s part of a new collaboration linking 15 U.S. universities with EDUSAT, the Government of India�s first educational satellite. (Third item.)

Developing Clough Island could add millions to the local economy and create hundreds, even thousands, of jobs, according to an economic impact study conducted by graduate students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

American biomedical researchers were reeling on Thursday after hearing reports from South Korea that members of a top team of scientists there had admitted to fabricating at least part of a landmark study on embryonic stem cells.

The revelations, the Americans said, had the potential to undermine research on cloning human embryos and developing embryonic-stem-cell lines for treating diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and diabetes.

A UW-Madison program is quietly finding ways to bring the state’s businesses together to help them solve each other’s problems.
The E-Business Consortium, established seven years ago by industrial engineering professor Raj Veeramani, is designed to help state companies learn from one another and compete successfully in the world of electronic business.

A collaborator of South Korean scientist Hwang Woo Suk, a hero in his country for his stem cell research, says his colleague has admitted fabricating some of his test results. In May, Hwang and his team published a landmark report in the journal Science announcing that they had created 11 lines, or colonies, of cloned human embryonic stem cells. This achievement made South Korea a leader in this field of research. But a co-author of the report, Roh Sung Il, told Korean television and newspapers that Hwang told him Thursday that most of the supposedly cloned lines were fakes and the fate of the others is unclear.

BERKELEY, Calif., Dec. 12 – With federal funds for basic computer science research at universities in decline, three of the industry’s leading companies are joining to help fill the void.

University of California computer scientists plan to announce on Thursday that the companies – Google, Microsoft and Sun Microsystems – will underwrite a $7.5 million laboratory on the Berkeley campus. The new research center, called the Reliable, Adaptive and Distributed Systems Laboratory, will focus on the design of more dependable computing systems.

No one was required to be there, yet physicist Brian Greene filled the Union Theater to the top of its balcony for a discussion on general relativity, quantum physics and his own area of expertise, string theory.

String theory, also called superstring theory, attempts to provide an overall theory of the universe by unifying Albert Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity and quantum mechanics and proposing that all matter can be described in terms of the vibrations of tiny “strings.”

If you are among those grumbling about having to shovel your sidewalk yet again, UW-Madison researcher Stephen Vavrus has some news for you. Without that snow, our planet would be in big trouble.
Vavrus is a climate modeling specialist at the Center for Climatic Research. With reports of melting Arctic ice becoming more frequent, Vavrus did what scientists do: He posed a question.

Children adopted from abroad often have difficulties adjusting to their new families and to life in the United States, exhibiting poor social skills, problems bonding with new family members and reticence in dealing with strangers.

Those difficulties are generally traced back to emotional deprivation in large orphanages, where infants often outnumber staff by 40 to 1, and caregivers do little more than feed and change the infants.

Wisconsin researchers have found that such deprivation can produce relatively permanent changes in a child’s brain chemistry, impairing production of hormones, such as oxytocin, that are crucial to bonding and social interaction.

A group of students and faculty from the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine are being credited for coming to the rescue during last summer’s devastating hurricane season. Campus officials say that while most people watched in horror as news details of Hurricane Katrina unfolded, a few dedicated souls traveled south to help by bringing back numerous animals that needed foster care or adoptive homes.

University of Wisconsin assistant professor Donald Moynihan recently released a report on avian flu entitled ââ?¬Å?Leveraging Collaborative Networks in Infrequent Emergency Situations.ââ?¬Â

Wisconsin scientists say agriculture dominates more than a third of the Earth’s landscape and is a major source of global environmental change.