Tag Biosciences
New treatment may curb IV-based infections
Inserted through the skin and into a vein, long-term intravascular devices such as IV catheters deliver to patients a range of life-saving medications, nutrition and fluids, among other uses. But these life-saving devices also can provide a furtive pipeline for germs from the external world to gain access to the bloodstream of patients. A new finding at UW–Madison may help solve this medical conundrum. Read More
Scientists zero in on drugs’ sweet spots
Employing a simple new technique to manipulate the sugars that power many front-line drugs, a team of Wisconsin scientists has enhanced the anti-cancer properties of a digitalis, a drug commonly used to treat heart disease. Read More
Center for Integrated Ag Systems Selected as a Pesticide Reduction Champion
The UW–Madison Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems has been selected by the EPA as a Pesticide Environmental Stewardship Program Champion for 2005. This designation honors CIAS for its efforts to reduce pesticide risk through sustainable agricultural practices such as Integrated Pest Management and organic farming. CIAS also received this national honor in 2003. Read More
Engineers chart semiconductors on the scale of atoms
Spanning fewer than a thousand atoms, the electronic devices on semiconductor chips have become so miniscule they defy most efforts to characterize them. Now for the first time, engineers have demonstrated a way to image these vanishingly small devices by mapping them atom by atom. Read More
Scientists to mimic nature for newest cancer drugs
The natural world has been medicine's most effective arsenal, providing life-saving antibiotics and our most potent anti-cancer drugs. Now, with help from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), a consortium of UW–Madison scientists will embark on a five-year program of drug discovery by copying and improving nature's designs to develop new medicines to treat colon, breast, cervical and pancreatic cancer. Read More
Scientists probe CWD’s spread through soils
Scientists at UW–Madison and around the country will report new findings during the Second International Chronic Wasting Disease Symposium here on July 12-14. The symposium comes at a time when the known range of CWD seems to be swelling from its relatively small, endemic home in parts of Wyoming and Colorado toward the east, where deer populations are denser. Read More
Huntington’s cure in flies lays groundwork for new treatment approaches
Boosting levels of two critical proteins that normally shut down during Huntington's disease, researchers at UW–Madison and the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory have cured fruit flies of the genetic, neurodegenerative condition. Read More
Forestry project will map likely habitat of endangered butterfly
A grant from the University of Wisconsin–Madison Graduate School's Technology Transfer Program will fund a project that uses computer mapping and statistical modeling to identify likely habitat of the endangered Karner blue butterfly. The project could help Wisconsin land managers save thousands of dollars on field surveys required to protect the rare insect. Read More
UW-Madison scientists receive $20 million award for protein study
Researchers at the Center for Eukaryotic Structural Genomics, based at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, have received a $20 million award to fund Phase II of the Protein Structure Initiative over the next five years. Read More
Study shows eutrophic lakes may not recover for a millennium
Although it has taken just 60 years for humans to put many freshwater lakes on the eutrophication fast track, a new study shows their recovery may take a thousand years under the best of circumstances. Read More
Scientists streamline method for making key virus
By devising a novel way to package the genome of a common human tumor virus - the virus that causes common warts, genital warts and that is implicated in prevalent cancers - scientists have paved the way for making the pathogen far more accessible to biomedical science. Read More
Making a better cheddar
Whether it's a stretchy mozzarella or an easy-to-slice Swiss, cheesemakers aim to provide consumers with high quality, consistent products. To this end, they often try to improve texture and flavor by controlling for factors like acidity and the breakdown of milk proteins by enzymes. However, the key to better Cheddar may lie in undissolved calcium salts, according to a report by UW–Madison cheese scientists published recently in the International Dairy Journal. Read More
Green diesel: New process makes fuel from plants
College of Engineering researchers have discovered a new way to make a diesel-like liquid fuel from carbohydrates commonly found in plants. "It's a very efficient process," says researcher George Huber. "The fuel produced contains 90 percent of the energy found in the carbohydrate and hydrogen feed. If you look at a carbohydrate source such as corn, our new process has the potential to create twice the energy as is created in using corn to make ethanol." Read More
Shared computing grid cuts data mountains down to size
Although University of Wisconsin–Madison professors Wesley Smith and David Schwartz operate in completely different scientific spheres - one seeking to explore the fundamental properties of matter and the other trying to wrest free the secrets of the human genome - both have the same dilemma: They are awash in a sea of data. Read More
Distributing computing resources: The social challenge
By bringing together a diverse group of scientific interests to share a large, distributed computing resource, the Grid Laboratory of Wisconsin (GLOW) itself has become an important subject of research. Read More
Can I get a copy of that molecule? Biology goes 3-D with new technology
In an era of quantum dots and genome maps, science education faces an interesting challenge: How can students come to grips with the complexity of the infinitesimally small? The answer: Fire up the copy machine. Read More
Researchers devise nano-scale method for investigating living systems
By observing how tiny specks of crystal move through the layers of a biological membrane, a team of electrical and computer engineers and biologists has devised a new method for investigating living systems on the molecular level. Read More
Laser scientist illuminates research in living color
In art, color is information. Just look at a painting by an artist such as Monet: Each uniquely hued brushstroke brings to life a new blade of grass, a leaf, a flower petal, a slice of sky-each a component of the complete picture. Read More
Wisconsin researchers identify sleep gene
Zeroing in on the core cellular mechanisms of sleep, researchers at University of Wisconsin Medical School have identified for the first time a single gene mutation that has a powerful effect on the amount of time fruit flies sleep. Read More
Plant pathway may treat human disease
A newly discovered pathway by which cells protect themselves from a toxic byproduct of photosynthesis may hold important implications for bioenergy sources, human and plant disease, and agricultural yields, a team of UW–Madison bacteriologists announced Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Read More