Washington – Middle-aged sons and daughters of people with Alzheimer’s disease might be able to reduce their risk of getting the disorder through lifestyle measures such as exercise, avoiding gum disease, consuming alcohol in moderation, and drinking fruit and vegetable juices, according to new research from Wisconsin and elsewhere.
PHILADELPHIA ââ?¬â?? In 1996, the last time the Biotechnology Industry Organization held its international convention in Philadelphia, about 3,700 people attended. A decade later, BIO expects at least 18,000 convention-goers to descend on the City of Brotherly Love.
As much as city officials here may claim it�s all about their sprawling convention hall and other civic improvements, the size of the BIO 2005 crowd says much more about the growth of the global biotech industry.
MADISON, Wis. – Anyone caught cloning a human being in Wisconsin could face up to a decade in prison and a million dollars in forfeitures under a Republican bill that outraged stem cell scientists fear could handcuff their work in the state.
The measure would ban cloning to create babies. It also would outlaw so-called therapeutic cloning, a term for cloning human embryos for research such as extracting stem cells. Embryos are destroyed after taking out the cells.
Madison – Concerned that technology is outpacing ethics, Republicans in the Legislature are pushing a ban on human cloning, but critics say the move would block future research into genetic diseases.
WASHINGTON — Senate majority leader Bill Frist is looking to schedule a vote next month on a controversial bill to expand federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, a move that could provoke President Bush to issue the first veto of his presidency.
MADISON ââ?¬â?? As a kid growing up on Long Island, Rich Hartel recalls that he could eat candy ââ?¬â?? any kind of candy ââ?¬â?? until he was ââ?¬Å?blue in the face.ââ?¬Â
ââ?¬Å?I even stole my dadââ?¬â?¢s licorice jellybeans, and I wasnââ?¬â?¢t that crazy about them,ââ?¬Â admitted Hartel, who is now a professor of food science in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at UW-Madison.
The state Assembly once again put politics above patients’ medical needs when members voted almost entirely along party lines Tuesday in favor of the so-called “conscience protection” bill, AB 207.
The legislation would allow health professionals, without fear of repercussion, to refuse to participate in procedures such as extracting embryonic stem cells for research or removing a feeding tube, if the action conflicts with their moral or religious beliefs.
Madison, Wis. – Stratatech Corp. was awarded a federal Phase II SBIR grant of $922,000 from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences to further develop its engineered human skin products.
Established in 2000, Stratatech is based in Madison and employs 18 people, according to the 2005 edition of the Greater Madison Wisconsin Area Directory of High-Tech Companies. Its products are based on a source of pathogen-free human skin cells that are able to multiply indefinitely, a technology first identified at UW-Madison.
Madison-based Stratatech Corp. has received a federal grant of nearly $1 million it will use to work to enhance the ability of its engineered human skin products to promote the healing of chronic wounds.
….Stratatech’s products are based on a patented, unique source of pathogen-free human skin cells identified at the UW-Madison as being able to multiply indefinitely.
Tear it down.
That�s what Steven Skolaski, president of the Rennebohm Foundation, will tell the Madison Landmarks Commission when it meets June 20 to consider preserving an 80-year-old former pharmacy at University and Randall avenues.
ââ?¬Å?I donââ?¬â?¢t know how I can be more plain than that,ââ?¬Â said Skolaski.
Many of us love Madison for its beautiful lakes, but a new study shows they might face a bleak future.
The UW-Madison study shows it could take a thousand years for Lake Mendota to recover from the effects of phosphorus run-off.
Congress should leave the nation’s patent law alone, says the director of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.
Carl Gulbrandsen is in Washington today to testify on the Patent Act of 2005 before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property. Gulbrandsen, who also serves on an advisory committee to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, spoke to the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property last week.
In that testimony, he said the proposed legislation “chips away at the value of university patents for the benefit of certain industries and, thereby, diminishes the good that can come from university technology transfer.”
Farmers’ routine application of chemical fertilizers and manure to the land poses a far greater environmental problem to freshwater lakes than previously thought, potentially polluting the water for hundreds of years, according to new research.
In a paper published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a University of Wisconsin-Madison expert blames the buildup largely on industrial agriculture’s excessive use of fertilizer and manure since the 1940s.
The concentration could cause the eutrophication of lakes for centuries as the treated soil slowly washes into lakes and streams, writes Stephen Carpenter, a professor of zoology and a leading expert on freshwater lakes.
The smell of Lake Mendota on some hot, humid summer afternoons is not something you are likely to read about in Madison tourism pamphlets.
The rank smell of weed and algae-choked shorelines belies the beauty of the blue lake as seen from a distance.
And now, a study from a UW-Madison limnologist shows that without aggressive steps to stem the flow of pollutants, especially phosphorus from fertilizers, into the lake, our legacy to future generations is probably going to be a lake as polluted or even dirtier and more weed-choked than it is today.
A University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher says that it could take hundreds of years, in the best of circumstances, to reverse conditions that have turned countless lakes into bowls of pea soup.
One senator last week called it a “great national debate.” The battle over embryonic stem cell research may not rank with Iraq or the economy as a burning public concern. But it is fast becoming a fixture of the budget and culture wars in Washington, D.C., and state capitals across the country. Soon it may produce the first veto of the Bush presidency. It’s likely to play a role in the 2006 congressional campaigns, and it provides a clear fault line in Wisconsin’s hotly contested race for governor next year.
Gov. Jim Doyle blasted Republicans for threatening to pull state funding for stem-cell research and accused them of slashing money for public schools during a speech at the state Democratic convention in Oshkosh Saturday.
Shortly before Congressman James Langevin cast his vote last month to relax federal rules on funding of stem cell research, the Rhode Island Democrat told his colleagues, “I believe one day I will walk again.” Langevin, who has been paralyzed since a gun accident at age 16, pleaded with his colleagues to vote with him. “Stem cell research gives us hope and a reason to believe. … We have a historic opportunity to make a difference for millions of Americans.”
“The most sobering thing about [hES] cells is their power,” says neuroscientist Clive Svendsen of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who works with both fetal and embryonic stem cells. The extreme flexibility and capacity for growth characteristic of ES cells makes them ideal for producing large quantities of therapeutic cells to treat, say, diabetes or spinal cord injuries. But these same traits also increase the risk that renegade cells could, as they have in animal studies, cause unwanted side effects, ending up in the wrong place or even sparking cancerous growth. “You have to learn to control that power in the dish” before thinking about putting the cells into patients, says Svendsen.
WASHINGTON – At the Senate’s first hearing Wednesday on a bill that would expand embryonic stem cell research, Dr. Su-Chun Zhang of the University of Wisconsin-Madison spoke in support of the measure, saying the United States was first to conduct breakthrough research on embryonic stem cells and shouldn’t be left behind.
“We Americans actually led the world by first establishing this human embryonic stem cell work. We should not be left out,” Zhang told the Senate Aging Committee. “The senators won’t let us down in leading the world in this area of promising research, which includes saving lives for all Americans.”
Zhang is a colleague of Dr. James Thomson, noted for founding the field of stem cell research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
A Fitchburg company started just last year is the winner of the governor’s business plan contest.
Mithridion Incorporated develops drugs that treat Alzheimer’s disease based on research at UW Madison.
WASHINGTON ââ?¬â? The science of stem cell research got its start at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Now, university researchers are appealing to the Senate to lift federal restrictions they say are hampering their effort to develop stem cell therapies for deadly diseases and crippling injuries.
Mithridion Inc., a Fitchburg-based company that is developing drugs to treat Alzheimer’s disease, has won the second annual Governor’s Business Plan Contest.
Mithridion, the top-scoring plan in the Life Sciences category, will receive $20,000 in cash and a year’s free rent at 525 Science Drive in University Research Park – an $80,000 value.
The firm’s co-founders are Jeff Johnson, an associate professor in the UW-Madison Pharmaceutical Sciences Division, and Trevor Twose, company CEO.
A bipartisan consensus in favor of allowing scientists to pursue stem cell research is showing signs of exercising political clout in Madison and Washington.
Wisconsin should encourage this moderate coalition to grow so that it can fend off persistent efforts to block government funding for embryonic stem cell experiments.
At stake is not only the potential for medical advancements that could save lives but also Wisconsin’s potential to become a hotbed for stem cell research and the biotechnology industry that it could spawn.
Not all of the research at the University of Wisconsin–Madison is in the hard sciences. Some of it’s fluffy, gooey, and even sweet.
Food engineering professor Richard Hartel studies chocolate under microscopes and teaches labs to make jelly beans. He’s also furthered UW’s longstanding involvement in the Institute of Food Technologists, a nonprofit dedicated to making food better. The organization has named him a 2005 fellow.
At first glance, the nation’s emotional debate over stem cell research seems a mere rerun of the unending dispute over abortion. Both involve the questions about protecting the development of human life, after all.
But there are important moral and religious distinctions between the two issues, and some groups that oppose abortion are not offended by stem cell experiments — even though they necessarily destory human embryos.
MADISON ââ?¬â?? In the halls of Congress as well as the Wisconsin Legislature, it is becoming more difficult for the opponents of human embryonic stem cell research to persuade fellow lawmakers that such science is unethical.
The fight over stem-cell research is far from over, but public opinion about its relative merits is beginning to carry more weight.
There are two proposals at the state level to limit stem-cell research. Legislators would be wise not to rush to enact them in the budget process. We could end up severely limiting Wisconsin’s ability to do research and compete economically.
State Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, co-chairman of the Joint Finance Committee, says he wants to ban the use of state resources for embryonic stem-cell research.
(MADISON) Researchers at the University of Wisconsin are having some success making a diesel-like liquid fuel from carbohydrates commonly found in plants. (Third item.)
Middleton – A grocer who can put more vegetables into customers’ shopping carts and fewer in the Dumpster because they’ve spoiled is going to make more money.
That’s the basic marketing message for Nutra Park Inc., a young business that has turned a discovery made by a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison into a commercial product.
Strier, a professor of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
Q. How did you find out you’d been elected to the academy?
A. It was a Tuesday morning. I was home actually answering e-mails.
Madison – The Legislature’s budget-writing panel Friday sidestepped a proposed prohibition of the use of state resources for embryonic stem-cell research, and approved initial funding for a major biotechnology research facility where such research would be conducted.
MADISON, Wis. ââ?¬â? A jury awarded Middleton-based Gilson Inc. a half-million dollars Friday in a contract dispute over a common lab instrument invented by the firm’s founder and used by researchers around the world.
MADISON – The Legislature’s budget committee approved the first phase of the governor’s plan for a new $380 million research center Friday after its co-chairman dropped a proposal to limit taxpayer support for embryonic stem cell work.
MADISON, Wis. — A pair of animal rights groups are working to open a museum detailing primate suffering between two primate research labs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, saying it will serve as a constant reminder of the horrors of animal research.
A UW-led team of international researchers has found a way to get extremely small materials to assemble themselves into patterns for use in electronic circuits.
The finding is important because electronics must be built on an ever-smaller scale, especially if they are to be used in the rapidly growing field of super-small nanotechnology.
The team, led by UW-Madison Prof. Paul Nealey, reported today in the journal Science that it can show how to create complex patterns vital in the production of nanoelectronics.
A UW-Madison team has taken another step forward in producing power from biomass such as cornstalks.
“Big Bucky” is back.
The rare, big and extremely stinky flower that caused a sensation at the University of Wisconsin-Madison when it last bloomed in 2001 could become the world’s largest flower when it blooms again next week.
The titan arum stood at 6 feet 4 inches Thursday in a UW-Madison greenhouse, on pace to rival the world record for cultivated flowers when it blooms and releases its trademark roadkill scent in the coming days.
Wisconsin would no longer spend taxpayer dollars to do embryonic stem cell research if one lawmaker has his way. State Senator Scott Fitzgerald. (Top item.)
A cloning product that David A. Mead developed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is generating about $40 million of annual revenue for California-based Invitrogen Corp.
A contingent of the Legislature’s budget committee said Thursday it was putting together a package to ban the use of state resources for embryonic stem cell research. Democartic Gov. Jim Doyle said he would veto the Republican provision if it was included in the budget. “If you talk about moving us backwards, that’s about the most backwards we could move,” Doyle said in a news conference at UW-Madison.
The UW Madison is home to a titan. And people all over the world could feel the impact of it. But it is some employees of the UW who will feel it most. The giant will unleash a foul odor at the height of its success. (Video.)
Still trying to make sense of stem cells and cloning?
Log on to The Why? Files, www.whyfiles.org, a Web-based magazine featuring a news-you-can-use approach to science, math and technology information.
The site, around since 1996 when the Internet was in its infancy, was highlighted in PC Magazine this spring as one of its top 100 sites. It’s the second time the site produced at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has earned the distinction.
The Medical College of Wisconsin and the University of Wisconsin Medical School have crafted an agreement to make it easier for their researchers to collaborate and for the schools to market their intellectual property together.
He’s a movie star, but you won’t find W. Nicholas G. Hitchon chasing the villain or sweeping the heroine off her feet. Instead, he taught an undergraduate electrical-engineering course this morning, and now he chats with two students in a cafeteria at the University of Wisconsin here.
Two days later a camera crew arrives and films Mr. Hitchon talking with the same two students at the same cafeteria — only this time at an outdoor table, where the light is better.
A technology that could bring better, safer treatments to cancer patients worldwide might have fallen through the cracks. Now Tomotherapy, a Madison medical-device firm with more than 200 employees that has grown to $44 million in sales, could go public within a year, its founder said.
The company is run by Thomas “Rock” Mackie, a UW-Madison professor who was spurred into going commercial when GE Medical cut off its funding for his radiology projects.
Do advances in health care technology amaze you? It would be hard not to be impressed. Advances that would have seemed like science fiction just a few years ago are now a part of routine care. That said, you should prepare yourself to be amazed again ââ?¬â?? and often.
The Corpse Flower…which drew crowds to the U-W Madison’s Botany Greenhouse when it bloomed four years ago…is set to bloom again. Terry Devitt is director of research communications for the U-W. (Fourth item.)
Randy and Julie McClure had three children who were long out of diapers and no plans for more when they heard about a program called Snowflakes, which arranges for women to become pregnant with embryos left over at fertility clinics.
UW-Madison has set its share of records, from athletics to academics, so why not one in botany?
Big Bucky, a malodorous tropical plant of the species Titan arum, is blooming again, and this time, as surely as Badger football great Ron Dayne ran for his place in history, this strange tropical plant is going for the botanical gold – the world title for the tallest Titan arum flower.
In an unprecedented move, officials at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) asked the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) to pull a bioterrorism-related paper that the journal planned to publish online on 30 May. The journal took the paper off its publication schedule on 27 May and has been reviewing it internally.
UW-Madison’s weekly online science magazine, The Why Files, was for the second time named one of the World Wide Web’s top 100 sites by PC Magazine. “This down to earth science site was a PC Magazine pick way back in 1997, when you had dialup and about 12 bookmarks. With tons of articles and activities, Why Files will take you from ignorance to expertise in dozens of subjects,” the magazine states.
A UW-Madison center focused on the science of the very small is going after big money.
Local professors are going to Washington, D.C., this week to compete for a federal grant for research into the emerging fields of nanotechnology, said Juan De Pablo, director of UW- Madison’s Materials Research Science and Engineering Center. The group is asking the National Science Foundation for $18 million over six years.
KRT) – ST. LOUIS – In one hand, plant geneticist Michael McMullen holds black teosinte kernels, the seeds of what scientists say is the grassy ancestor of corn. In the other, he holds needlenose pliers – definitely needed to crack the tough hulls into a few starchy bits.
The work, a joint project among the University of Missouri, the University of California at Irvine and the University of Wisconsin at Madison, is published Friday in the journal Science.
A $6.6 million pixel camera for taking detailed research photographs of the night sky is scheduled to be built for the Kitt Peak National Observatory with help from the University of Wisconsin.
American scientists looked on in envy last month when Korean researchers announced a breakthrough in embryonic stem cell research. The news fanned fears the US is losing ground in the field and heightened the sense of urgency in Congress to pass legislation to ease federal restrictions on stem cell funding.
Three writers express their views.
It was barely a drop, but the effect of the drug was astonishing. Pointing to a digital recording of fathead minnows gasping for breath in a milky, murky stew, researcher Rebecca Klaper said: “We had planned to keep them in there for a week, but we had to pull them the next day. They were going to die.” Refers to UW-Madison research by Stanley Dodson and Joel Pedersen.
Back in Wisconsin, the University of Wisconsin-Madison has become a leading center for research where human embryos are destroyed to harvest their body parts, namely their stem cells. Not only does UW-Madison engage in this lethal research, it has vigorously lobbied at the federal level to force taxpayers to fund it. An op-ed piece by the legislative affairs director of Pro-Life Wisconsin.
