Shedding new light on brain-related diseases, UW-Madison scientists Jeffrey Johnson and Marcus J. Calkins have discovered a way to “re-engineer” the brain that may defend against such diseases as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases. Johnson’s team is pioneering a procedure that prevents oxygen from building up to toxic levels in the brain.
We last left Eric Anderson as he got ready for a research project to prove that cougars once again roam parts of Wisconsin. Over the winter, he and students from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point spent 100 hours on weekends looking for the big cats near purported hotspots such as Rhinelander, Tomahawk and Vilas County.
Mozart’s creativity led him to compose magnificent symphonies. Shakespeare’s creativity inspired him to write timeless plays. Einstein’s creativity helped him formulate a revolutionary vision of the universe.
The use of animals in research is a socially sensitive issue. The tension between opposing perspectives hinges on the following fact: Certain questions about human and animal health can only be answered through animal studies. No animals, no answers. In this context, “alternatives to animal studies” means asking different questions.
As a large research university, UW-Madison is a magnet for animal rights activists. And this year we have a bumper crop. They are busy dumpster diving, video taping university research facilities and doing their best to intimidate researchers and staff. They also are proving to be artful propagandists.
Like Rudyard Kipling, only in a lab coat, Sean Carroll has for years been telling us how creatures such as butterflies get their spots.
Carroll, a molecular biologist with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute on the UW-Madison campus, has published a steady stream of journal articles detailing the invisible workings of genes that power the adaptation and evolution of all animals — the genes, for example, that help a butterfly camouflage itself from predators with different colors or colorful eyespots.
What’s an eager Wisconsin gardener to do in late April when it’s too cold to plant tomatoes?
Consult the experts Saturday at the first Family Horticulture Day at UW-Madison’s West Madison Agricultural Research Station.
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee decisively advanced its aspirations to become a nationally recognized research school with the announcement Thursday that it hired a technology entrepreneur with a broad international background for a newly created vice chancellor post. The school hired Abbas Ourmazd, an Iranian-born U.S. citizen who worked for Lucent Technologies’ Bell Labs in the U.S. before taking on a leadership position with the German national technology labs, as UWM’s first-ever vice chancellor for research.
Despite the medical promised of human embryonic stem cells, the U.S. is falling behind other countries in such research because of government restrictions on the use of the controversial cells, according to speakers Thiursday at the fourth annual International Bioethics Forum.
It seemed like Wisconsin was going to stick to its progressive tradition. Although President George W. Bush had enacted a policy on stem-cell research prohibiting federal funding for the acquisition of new embryonic stem-cell lines, Wisconsin had taken it�s own steps to advance the science. Via actions such as Gov. Jim Doyle�s fiscal commitment to embryonic stem-cell research in his most recent budget, the state seemed to support the study of embryonic stem cells. Unfortunately, just as things were looking up for embryonic stem-cell research in Wisconsin, proponents of the research hit a roadblock.
WASHINGTON – Sen. Dianne Feinstein and a bipartisan group of colleagues renewed efforts Thursday to expand embryonic stem cell research, introducing legislation that would allow federal support for such research to be used in treating disease.
MADISON, Wis. — A University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher said he would ask federal regulators Friday to approve the first clinical trial injecting special stem cells into the spinal cords of people with the degenerative nerve ailment called Lou Gehrig’s disease.
The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, the technology transfer and licensing arm of the UW-Madison, has filed a lawsuit against Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc., charging it with breach of contract and other violations of its agreement with WARF.
Attorneys for WARF said the suit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Madison, seeks to ensure that the interests of UW-Madison and its inventors are protected and that WARF receives its contractual share of a $157-million agreement entered into by Xenon, which is in British Columbia, Canada.
Madison, Wis. ââ?¬â? Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have sucessfully injected stem cells into rats’ spines in a way that could lead to treatments for degenerative diseases ââ?¬â?? but they did not use the controversial embryonic stem cells.
Assembly Republicans ought to be embarrassed by the mess they made of a bill to encourage businesses to create research-related jobs in Wisconsin.
The Assembly last week passed the bill, to offer businesses tax credits for conducting research and development, but only after attaching an amendment to withhold the credits from businesses focusing on human cloning or research into new lines of human embryonic stem cells.
(MADISON) University of Wisconsin researchers have created a new kind of stem cell that may eventually be used as a drug delivery device to treat Lou Gehrig�s Diseas. (Third item.)
Scientists at UW-Madison say they may be within two or three years of human trials on a promising stem-cell treatment for the deadly nerve disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS.
In an article published Tuesday in the journal Human Gene Therapy, researchers reported they have injected ALS- afflicted rats with human nerve stem cells that flourished in the animals’ diseased spinal cords.
Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have found a way to insert healthy neural stem cells into diseased rats, and keep those cells alive.
The rats were afflicted with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s disease. The researchers successfully transplanted genetically modified neural stem cells into a rat’s spinal cord and kept the stem cells alive, releasing a neuron-protecting protein.
Madison: UW stem cell researchers have announced a major breakthrough in the treatment of ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease. ALS causes motor neurons to die and slowly paralyzes its victims.
SAN DIEGO — Several scientists have used embryonic or fetal stem cells to help rodents with spinal cord injuries walk again. The researchers travel the country showing videos of rats dragging their hind legs, followed by clips of them miraculously hopping around following stem-cell injections
To the untrained eye, it looks like a peaceful creek. But the water flowing through the UW Arboretum’s West Wingra Marsh is a deep gully cut by unmanaged storm water.
While state legislative, research and business leaders debate the ethical and economic implications of an amendment denying tax credits to companies engaging in new lines of embryonic stem cell research, University of Wisconsin scientists are not worrying, pointing to the improbability of its approval.
(MADISON) The next big thing in science is very small. Nanotechnology is an emerging field that uses tiny particles for everything from faster computers to self-cleaning windows and pants that don�t stain. (4th item)
By Stacy A. Teicher, The Christian Science Monitor
College life requires just the right balance between study, work, and play. And for many, there’s a fourth essential: prayer. Nearly two-thirds of American college freshmen pray at least weekly, according to the first comprehensive nationwide survey about their spiritual and religious views.
On public and private campuses alike, spirituality has moved beyond the chapel. Whether students prefer meditation, sacred music, or grappling with meaning-of-life questions around the dinner table, many schools are responding by making more space for spiritual exploration.
Instead of going to class last Thursday and Friday, engineering students joined community-members and businesses in the biennial Engineering Expo.
Well over 200,000 animals spend their entire lives in UW-Madison research labs. After reading recent media reports about alleged cruel and unnecessary experiments on these animals, I and several other concerned citizens have made numerous attempts to attend the federally-mandated meetings of the UW-Madison’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees.
For more than a year, Karl Mahlburg chipped away at a math problem that couldn’t be solved — until he solved it.
Madison: If you’re wondering how you can afford to travel when gas costs $2.25 at the pump, the answer may be in getting 40 miles per gallon.
While that’s out of reach for most vehicles today, UW Automotive Faculty Advisor Glenn Bower says it’s not unrealistic for the vehicles of tomorrow. “More like a Ford Taurus will be in the high 35’s to the 40 range 5 years from now is what I’d predict. The SUV’s will be around 30.”
University officials and alumni gathered on Henry Mall Thursday to attend a program entitled The BioStar Journey: Celebrating Discovery that introduced three new building additions on campus and allowed attendees to tour the buildings.
It has been 12 years since Nancy Hopkins, a senior professor of molecular biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was crawling around the floor of her laboratory with a tape measure, intent on proving to a male administrator that she had 1,500 square feet less laboratory space than her male counterparts.
Warfarin, a drug discovered and patented at the University of Wisconsin, has more negative side effects than its competitor aspirin, according to a recent study published in last month�s New England Journal of Medicine.
Gov. Jim Doyle is blasting a Republican proposal to cut off state tax breaks for Wisconsin companies seeking to develop new stem cell lines.
Doyle said the move would close the door on new research in Wisconsin and sends the wrong message to biotech businesses seeking to locate or expand here.
Stepping gingerly into a politically charged arena for the first time, some large companies in the United States are pursuing plans to study stem cells drawn from early-stage human embryos.
Noted: Becton Dickinson received supplies from the University of Wisconsin.
Wisconsin political, business and science leaders who have pushed the state’s nascent biotech industry reacted with dismay Wednesday to a vote by the Assembly Tuesday night that would bar companies doing research on new stem cell lines from applying for research and development tax credits.
(MADISON) The Medical School at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is getting eight million dollars in grants to compare five, federally-approved smoking treatments. (Third item.)
Cites research by a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor that showed feral cats kill millions of songbirds as well as native species such as pheasants and grouse every year in the state.
Gov. Jim Doyle, citing groundbreaking discoveries made in Wisconsin and his own mother’s health issues, reaffirmed his support of embryonic stem cell research Tuesday.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A common cold bug could cause heart attacks in younger men, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday.
The findings add to a growing body of evidence that Chlamydia pneumoniae and perhaps other infections can sometimes damage the heart and arteries, causing heart disease.
Quoted: Christine Arcari and colleagues at the University of Wisconsin Medical School and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
If a front-row seat at a human science fair won’t soften our skepticism, maybe a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor’s research will. To get a better read on Tasers, John Webster is ready to study how current enters the body, flows through it and affects muscles and the nervous system.
An emotional battle erupted in the Wisconsin Assembly Tuesday night as Republicans voted to bar firms probing new embryonic stem-cell lines from proposed new research and development tax credits.
The bill, passed by the Assembly 59-36 and sent to the Senate for approval, is one of the legislative linchpins in the Assembly Republicans’ “100- day agenda” for job creation. The Assembly also passed five other bills designed to improve Wisconsin’s business appeal with regulatory and legal changes.
Sufferin’ succotash ââ?¬â? Sylvester had better stay home. A statewide vote in Wisconsin could pave the way for legally shooting stray cats there.
University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers are recruiting 2,800 smokers in the Madison and Milwaukee areas for what they describe as the largest smoking study ever in Wisconsin.
Most of the smokers will have access to the latest federally approved drugs, although 13 percent will be given placebos. The study will be different from past research because it will study people for longer and evaluate the entire portrait of their health, the researchers said.
From the dawn of life, it has tugged our oceans to create the tides. It has shone like a beacon for wanderers in the night. It has inspired the hearts of poets and stirred the souls of romantics. It is a metaphor for something unattainable, yet something that can be attained nonetheless with human ingenuity and desire.
It is the moon, on average a quarter of a million miles away from us. Yet between 1969 and 1972, 12 men spanned that unimaginable distance to set foot on its dusty surface. One of those men is now a UW-Madison professor who, in 1972, was one of three astronauts who piloted Apollo 17 into space and one of two to walk on the moon.
The U.S. Department of Justice is paying the University of Wisconsin $500,000 to put pigs under general anesthesia, inject them with cocaine and zap them with Tasers.
The Supreme Court will hear a patent case regarding the protection of research tools April 20 which numerous organizations and universities, including the Wisconsin Alumni Research Association, have taken active roles in the case�s discussion.
Amid controversy on the University’s tazer tests on pigs, a head honcho assures everyone there’s nothing to worry about. (Audio.)
MADISON, Wis. – Call it much ado about almost nothing. To create buzz about an otherwise arcane subject, the University of Wisconsin-Madison showed off a tiny speck of zircon crystal believed to be the oldest known piece of Earth at about 4.4 billion years old.
Science is a subject worth going to class for on the weekend for Niabi Schmaltz and Holly Godar.
The eighth-graders rode their bicycles to the UW-Madison campus Saturday to participate in the Celebrating Women in Science program at the university’s chemistry department.
From manipulating objects several atoms thick to using physics to find a cure for brain cancer, some of the most revolutionary research on campus is being conducted by women. As part of the “Celebrating Women of Science” program, five female UW-Madison scientists summarized their research in a public discussion Saturday.
Four UW-Madison faculty members are recipients of the 2005 Hilldale Awards, which annually recognize excellence in teaching, research and public service.
This year’s recipients are Richard M. Amasino, professor in the department of biochemistry, James S. Donnelly Jr., professor in the department of history; Paul H. Rabinowitz, a Vilas Research Professor in the department of mathematics; and Karen B. Strier, professor of anthropology and affiliate professor of zoology.
Three UW-Madison professors are among 186 scholars and artists in the United States and Canada to receive prestigious fellowhips from the Guggenheim Foundation.
UW-Madison’s awardees are French professor Richard E. Goodkin, English professor Theresa M. Kelley and David Sorkin, a professor of Jewish studies and director of the university’s Institute for Research in the Humanities.
In a hyper-mediated and ultra-commercialized age, where can we find just plain old “folks?”
UW-Madison will explore that question starting Thursday with a 10-day series of music performances, museum exhibits and public lectures called “The Future of Folk.”
A tiny speck of zircon crystal that is barely visible to the eye is believed to be the oldest known piece of Earth at about 4.4 billion years old.
For the first time, the public will have a chance to see the particle today at UW-Madison, where researchers in 2001 made the breakthrough discovery that the early Earth was much cooler than previously believed, based on analysis of the crystal.
Consumers still spending
So far, consumers appear only a little worried about rising prices and interest rates. The Consumer Confidence Index dipped slightly for March. It’s published monthly by The Conference Board, a private business-research center.
“We haven’t seen much of a drawback on spending. It would really depend on how high and how long; I think duration is important here,” said Lynn Franco, a Conference Board economist. “So far, we’ve seen consumers at least weathering the hikes well.”
But Laura Dresser, research director at the Center on Wisconsin Strategies, a think tank at UW-Madison, added, “Inflation is obviously a problem for people. It stretches already stretched paychecks and high gasoline prices are hard for very many families to deal with on a budget. . . . Gas prices take a real toll on lower and moderate income families.”
Quoted: Stanley Temple, professor, wildlife ecology.
‘Country is watching’ Hunters generally support the feral cat proposal, citing a 1996 study by UW-Madison wildlife ecology professor Stanley Temple that from 7.8 million to 219 million birds are killed by rural cats in Wisconsin each year.
Controversial plans to test tasers on drugged pigs have been blocked, for now.
UW animal research to study the effects of tasers could involve drugging animals in the future
UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley said an approved research protocol for using pigs to study the effects of taser stun guns has limits and the study’s principal researcher will have to honor those limits.
Midwest Symposium of Student Paleontologic Research begins at 4-7 pm today with registration and reception at the UW Geology Museum. The best events are mostly tomorrow, including the keynote address, “Dinosaurs on Ice,” by Dr. William R. Hammer, at the UW Pyle Center at 5:30 pm. The conference cost, for those who have rocks in their head, is $60.
Trees in Wisconsin and around the nation might one day be the raw materials for everything from car bodies to wiring, a new report on forest industries found.
The report argues that the wood and paper industries – key but stagnant parts of the state and national economy – might be rejuvenated by nanotechnology, the science of the very small.
A $5 million education research grant has been bestowed on the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the school announced. The five-year federal grant will fund an interdisciplinary training program in the education sciences at the School of Education’s Wisconsin Center for Education Research in the School of Education. (Sixth item)
Dear Editor: The University of Wisconsin’s pig-shocking project discussed in the March 30 Capital Times brought back memories of another notable UW “research” project.
