Transplanted stem cells show promise for mending broken hearts
Working with heart attack-stricken mice, a team of UW-Madison scientists has shown that embryonic stem cells may one day live up to their clinical promise.
Tag: research
Engineered stem cells show promise for sneaking drugs into the brain
One of the great challenges for treating Parkinson’s diseases and other neurodegenerative disorders is getting medicine to the right place in the brain. UW-Madison neuroscientist Clive Svendsen and his colleagues show how engineered human brain cells, transplanted into the brains of rats and monkeys, can integrate into the brain and deliver medicine where it is needed.
UW scientists team up to battle food-borne illnesses
On its journey to your dinner plate, food is vulnerable to contamination along the way. Usually, it arrives at its final destination without picking up dangerous microbial hitchhikers—but not always.
New technologies target food-borne illnesses
On its journey to your dinner plate, food is vulnerable to contamination along the way. In 2000, UW-Madison made a commitment to help tackle this complex problem by hiring an interdisciplinary group of researchers with expertise in food safety.
Study suggests treatment for fatal nervous system disorder
Working with mice, University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have developed the basis for a therapeutic strategy that could provide hope for children afflicted with Krabbe’s disease, a fatal nervous system disorder.
Dancing bacteria? Engineers explore microbial choreography
Birds fly together in flocks. Fish swim together in schools. Everyone has seen the beautiful, seemingly choreographed motions these collections of organisms can exhibit. But surely bacteria, which have no eyes or brain, cannot behave in such a coordinated way. In fact, they do, and researchers are beginning to learn how.
Tracking a case study for avian flu preparedness
As public health experts discuss how best to prevent an avian flu epidemic in the United States, La Follette School of Public Affairs assistant professor Donald P. Moynihan says a recent avian disease outreak offers important clues.
Hummingbirds get some energy the easy way: passively
When it comes to energy metabolism, hummingbirds are the heavyweight champions of vertebrates. Pound for pound, the thumb-sized birds have higher energy demands than elephants.
Study: Job satisfaction varies between independent and organization-hired doctors
Wisconsin family physicians employed by large health care organizations are less happy on the job and more likely to want to leave than those in independent practice, according to a study published in the Dec. 6, 2005 issue of the Annals of Family Medicine.
New maps reveal the human footprint on Earth
As global populations swell, farmers are cultivating more and more land in a desperate bid to keep pace with the ever-intensifying needs of humans. As a result, agricultural activity now dominates more than a third of the Earth’s landscape and has emerged as one of the central forces of global environmental change, say scientists at the Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment.
Scientists seek clear-sky definition of clouds
Atmospheric scientists – Earth’s professional cloud-gazers – have learned a great deal about clouds over the decades, particularly with the advent of satellites during the 1960s and 70s. But despite years of research and the emergence of increasingly sophisticated tools, scientists are still at odds over one of the most basic issues of all: how to define a cloud.
The cold truth about climate change and snow
What would the Earth be like if one fine day all the snow melted away? For one, global temperatures would likely spike by about eight-tenths of a degree Celsius — an increase that represents as much as a third of the warming that climate change experts have predicted.
UW-Madison, WARF rank third in 2004 license income
Driven by the discovery of promising new drugs, agricultural products and biotechnologies, UW-Madison and its technology transfer arm, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, generated more than $47.5 million in licensing revenues last year.
INSITE receives grant for research into entrepreneurship
The Center for World Affairs and the Global Economy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has awarded a three-year, $125,000 collaborative research grant to the Initiative for Studies in Technology Entrepreneurship (INSITE).
Advances may improve prostate cancer treatment
A trio of innovations may enable physicians to plan prostate cancer patients’ treatment in real time and to implant cancer-killing radiation “seeds” more accurately and efficiently.
Joe McCarthy and the Press
While a Hollywood film revisits the 1950s anti-communist furor spawned by the late Wisconsin Sen. Joseph McCarthy, a Wisconsin journalist’s book studying the politician’s relationship with the media of his day has also been reintroduced to bookshelves.
Youth log online for civic engagement
Use of the Internet as a resource and a forum strongly influences participation in civic affairs, often more than traditional media and even face-to-face communication, according to a study by a UW-Madison journalism professor.
Research initiative enhances Minnesota-Wisconsin partnerships
Some of the plays in the stands at Lambeau Field were just as thrilling as those on the turf when Minnesota Vikings ownership partner and New Jersey attorney and businessman David Mandelbaum revealed a plan for a $2.5 million gift to the UW-Madison Eye Research Institute to support a joint research initiative with scientists at the University of Minnesota.
Psychologists glimpse biological imprint of childhood neglect
The absence of a loving caregiver in the earliest years of life could sway the normal activity of two hormones – vasopressin and oxytocin – that play an essential role in the ability to form healthy social bonds and emotional intimacy.
Two receive Women’s Philanthropy Council ‘Champion’ awards
An assistant dean in the School of Education and the coordinator of new faculty services in the office of the Secretary of the Faculty are the recipients of the inaugural Women’s Philanthropy Council (WPC) Champion Awards at UW-Madison.