The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health is among the first medical centers in the country taking part in a novel clinical trial investigating if a subject’s own stem cells can treat a form of severe coronary artery disease.
A University of Wisconsin-Madison pharmacy professor aims to improve the delivery of cancer-fighting drugs by targeting them more selectively to tumors and boosting their solubility in water.
Nature has outfitted us with a pair of ears for good reason: having two ears enhances hearing. University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists are now examining whether this is also true for the growing numbers of deaf children who’ve received not one, but two, cochlear implants to help them hear.
A brain afflicted by severe Alzheimer’s disease is a sad sight, a wreck of tangled neural connections and organic rubble as the lingering evidence of a fierce internal battle. A new study has now uncovered an unexpected link between this devastating neural degeneration and a protein whose absence causes a different neurological disease – the inherited mental retardation disorder called fragile X syndrome.
Ushering nutritional science into the biotech age, UW–Madison researchers are exploring the complex interactions between food and genes to uncover new modes of disease prevention, drug development and, eventually, personalized diet advice tailored to one’s DNA.
In a painstaking set of experiments in overweight mice, scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison have discovered a gene that appears to play an important role in the onset of type 2 diabetes.
A team of Canadian and American scientists working at the UW-Madison Synchrotron Radiation Center reports the first-ever finding of elevated levels of creatine — the newly discovered agent of Alzheimer’s disease – in brain tissue.
Patients who suffer from neurological diseases such as Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s, Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS) and Alzheimer’s disease have dramatically different symptoms. An Alzheimer’s patient, for instance, will lose memory and cognitive function, while an ALS sufferer will gradually lose motor control.
Forty-two years ago, Dan Quigley injected his first insulin shot to treat his Type 1 (juvenile) diabetes, a routine repeated three times a day, every day until recently. On Oct. 29, the 55-year-old Door County man stood with Medical School physicians Luis Fernandez and Jon Odorico to announce that he is finally insulin-free after receiving the first islet cell transplant performed in the state. Quigley had the transplant in 2002.
In a finding that may cause a dramatic shift in the way scientists and researchers search for a therapy for Alzheimer’s disease, a team of researchers led by Jeff Johnson, an associate professor at the School of Pharmacy, has discovered that increased expression of a protein called transthyretin in the brain appears to halt the progression of the disease. The findings appear in the current issue of The Journal of Neuroscience.
By studying embryonic stem cells from a mouse, researchers at UW-Madison have identified a potential model system for elucidating the stages of normal pancreatic development, as well as for developing a much-needed source of insulin-producing cells for the millions of people who need them to treat their diabetes.
In a recent informal poll of UW Health primary care experts, obesity, smoking and inactivity were ranked the health problems most patients need to take seriously. Depression, diabetes and hypertension were not far behind. The good news: tackling even one of these problems will likely improve your health in several areas.
Scientists have created an animal that can eat a rich, high-fat diet without adding weight or risking the complications of diabetes
As the number of new Alzheimer’s cases balloons to a projected 14 million by 2050, the Medical School is establishing the nation’s first comprehensive research study of children of people with Alzheimer’s disease.
A new study of the proteins that may be responsible for the brain lesions associated with Alzheimer’s disease promises a new understanding of its underlying cause, and may someday yield new treatments for the devastating and deadly disease.