Milestones

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1963—Dedication of the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Memorial Laboratories on the UW-Madison campus, the precursor to the Waisman Center.

1965—Selection of UW-Madison by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) as one of the first two sites in the United States for a multidisciplinary center devoted to research on human development and mental retardation.

1968—With the passage of the Developmental Disabilities Act, selection of UW-Madison as the site for a University Affiliated Facility, one of 10 initial programs. Today, there are 67 in the United States that are now referred to as University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities. These centers provide training, services, applied research, and outreach programs.

1970—Clinical services were initiated in rental space near campus. Stanley Berlow, MD, was medical director of those clinics, which utilized–then, as today–a multidisciplinary team approach. The clinics moved to the Waisman Center in 1973.

1971—Became the first University Affiliated Facility to develop a computer system for client data collection.

1973—Dedication of the Waisman Center, which was named for Harry A. Waisman, a biochemist, pediatrician, and pioneer in mental retardation research.

1973—Established a biomedical research unit at the Waisman Center, representing a new focal point for brain research on the UW-Madison campus. First unit coordinator was Clinton N. Woolsey, MD, an acclaimed neuroscientist who, along with Harry Waisman, was a driving force in the establishment of the Waisman Center.

1975—Initiated one of the first genetics counseling training programs in the United States—the only one in the state of Wisconsin to this day.

1975—Establishment of the Friends of the Waisman Center by Harvey A. Stevens, the first program administrator of the Waisman Center.

1976—Established an international collection of art by people with developmental disabilities, featuring more than 150 artworks from 15 countries.

1979—Established the Communication Aids and Systems Clinic (CASC) to provide state-of-the-art augmentative and alternative communication services. A joint venture with UW-Hospitals and Clinics, CASC was one of the very early programs in the country with this focus.

1979—Opened the Waisman Early Childhood Program, a model school for children with diverse developmental needs.

1982—Appointment of Terrence R. Dolan, PhD, as director of the Waisman Center. A professor in the Departments of Neurology and Psychology, Dolan broadened the center's research programs in numerous areas and guided the planning and development of a major expansion of the Waisman Center. He was director for 20 years.

1983—Naming of an X-linked form of mental retardation the "Waisman Syndrome," after Harry Waisman.

1983—Larry Shriberg, PhD, developed PEPPER, the first computer program designed to categorize the various factors contributing to speech disorders and to identify useful therapies. Currently, PEPPER (Programs to Examine Phonetic and Phonologic Evaluation Records) is used as a research tool in the quest for the genetic origins of childhood speech sound disorders.

1985—Jon F. Miller, PhD, developed the first edition of SALT (Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts), a new method for quickly analyzing speech and language—a standard for researchers and clinicians to this day.

1986—Initiated the Children's Theatre, an outreach performance series for young children and their families that draws thousands of people to the Center each year.

1989—Jon A. Wolff, MD, discovered a highly successful strategy for gene transfer (naked DNA) that is the basis for many clinical trials of DNA vaccines and gene therapies.

1989—Expanded community outreach and training programs in response to new Birth to 3 Early Intervention federal legislation.

1990—Developed a training curriculum in conjunction with UW-Extension that has been used over the years by thousands of service providers who work with people who have developmental disabilities.

1992—Initiated the Alvin L. Berman & Ruth Bleier Memorial Student Research Award, given by the Friends of the Waisman Center, commemorating the contributions of these Waisman Center scientists.

1994—Organized a Constituent Advisory Committee to formally solicit advice from individuals with developmental disabilities and their families regarding programs and services.

1995—The Waisman Center's "Trace Center," led by Gregg Vanderheiden, PhD, incorporated, for the first time, accessibility features into a PC-based system.

1995—Established the NICHD-funded Waisman Center Post-Doctoral Training Program in Developmental Disabilities, an important initiative that expanded the Center's commitment to advanced research training.

1996—Jenny Saffran, PhD,demonstrated that infants can keep track of statistical properties of sounds to learn language.

1996—Hill Goldsmith, PhD, established a state-wide twins database, the first of its kind and a resource for multiple research projects related to behavioral genetics and early childhood development.

1996—Established the Board of Visitors, an external advisory group to the Waisman Center.

1996—Opened the Family Village, an award-winning internet site and one of the first resources on the web designed for families and people affected by disability. www.familyvillage.wisc.edu/

1997—Robin S. Chapman, PhD, provided new evidence that, in individuals with Down syndrome, language skills once thought to plateau in childhood continue to develop into adulthood.

1998—Established a Waisman Center community outreach site in central Madison dedicated to community training on the inclusion of people with developmental disabilities. This outreach site is a component of Waisman's University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, led by Dan Bier, MPA, MSW, associate director.

1999—Publication of the book Improving the Communication of People with Down Syndrome, edited by the Waisman Center's Jon F. Miller, PhD, and Lewis Leavitt, MD, integrating two decades of research on Down syndrome conducted in nine Waisman Center laboratories.

2000—Established the Waisman Resource Center, a statewide source of information and assistance for families and providers about children who have special health care needs.

2001—Albee Messing, VMD, PhD, discovered the gene that causes Alexander disease.

2001—Len Abbeduto, PhD, provided new evidence that Down syndrome and fragile X syndrome are characterized by different language and cognitive profiles.

2001—Completion of a $25 million addition, including the six-story William F. and Betty Jo Heckrodt Translational Research Tower and the Judith B. Ward Early Childhood Wing.

2001—Provided new evidence, through a longitudinal study, of the factors leading to life-long psychological well-being in families who have a son or daughter with a developmental disability.

2001—Established the Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior, led by Richard Davidson, PhD, one of the most comprehensive and sophisticated brain imaging centers in the world.

2002—Appointment of Marsha Mailick Seltzer, PhD, as Waisman Center director. An international authority on families of people with developmental disabilities, Seltzer's research focuses on life course trajectories of developmental disabilities and the well-being of parents and siblings. Seltzer is Vaughan Bascom and Elizabeth M. Boggs Professor of Social Work and Pediatrics.

2002—Awarded the faculty cluster, "Translational Research and Neurodegenerative Diseases," now including professors Su-Chun Zhang, MD, PhD,& QiangChang, PhD.

2002—Ruth Litovsky, PhD, conducted the first test in the United States of a child with dual cochlear implants. Litovksyalso patented a new test that assesses hearing in children in complex environments.

2002—Arthur Reynolds, PhD, provided compelling new evidence from the Chicago Longitudinal Study that preschool programs have positive life-long effects on high school graduation rates, prevention of delinquency, and self-sufficiency in adulthood.

2002—Partnered with Madison Metropolitan School District to establish a pilot four-year old kindergarten program.

2003—Developed new stem cell approaches for treating conditions such as Parkinson's disease and ALS.

2003—Conducted first test in the United States of a child with dual cochlear implants.

2005—Demonstrated that engineered human brain progenitor cells, transplanted into the brains of animal models, can effectively deliver medicine.

2005—Su-Chun Zhang, MD, PhD, demonstrated that human embryonic stem cells can be coaxed into becoming spinal motor neurons that relay messages from the brain to the body, and midbrain dopamine neurons that coordinate movement.

2005—The Waisman Center's cleanroom facility–the Waisman Clinical Biomanufacturing Facility–led by Derek Hei, PhD, partnered with the WiCell Research Institute and a team of UW investigators to establish the first NIH National Stem Cell Bank.

2005—Selected to lead one of seven "Vanguard Centers" to conduct the National Children's Study, the largest long-term investigation of human health and development ever conducted in the United States. Maureen Durkin, PhD, DrPH, leads the Wisconsin study.

2006—Richard Davidson, PhD, and Kim Dalton, PhD, uncovered a link between the size of a brain structure—the amygdala—and social deficits in autism.

2007—James Malter, MD, and Cara Westmark, PhD, discovered a link between the fragile X mental retardation protein and Alzheimer's disease, a finding that may lead to new treatments for both fragile X syndrome and Alzheimer's.

2007—As of this year, have provided services and supports to 78,000 individuals with developmental disabilities and their families and training to 6,700 university students.

2009—Research by Seth Pollak, PhD, and Christopher Coe, PhD, demonstrated that stressful experiences in early childhood (such as abuse, poverty, or living in an orphanage) can have long-lasting impacts on children's health and immune function that persist well beyond the removal of the children from those environments.

2010—As of this year, have provided services to more than 100,000 individuals with developmental disabilities and their families and training to 10,000 university students.

2010—Opening of the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds, which conducts interdisciplinary research on attention, mindfulness, and other healthy qualities of mind.

The Waisman Center was selected as one of five facilities nationwide to participate in the PACT (Production Assistance for Cellular Therapies) Program. The PACT program is designed to develop cellular therapies and manufacture products that will aid investigators to transition research from basic science to clinical trials. The Waisman Center PACT Program is led by Derek Hei, PhD.

Using diffusion tensor imaging, Andy Alexander, PhD, and his team developed new methods to help identify individuals with autism based on white matter connections within the brain. This study correctly identified individuals with autism 94% of the time.

Research published by Marsha Mailick Seltzer, PhD, and Jan Greenberg, PhD, based on their longitudinal study of 400 adolescents and adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), was cited among the key scientific accomplishments of 2010 by Autism Speaks.

Tandem Press organized a six month exhibit at the Dane County Regional Airport of the Harvey A. Stevens International Collection of Art by People with Developmental Disabilities. This display is a graphic reminder that artistic expression and talent can be viewed through many prisms.

 

2011

Xinyu Zhao, PhD, discovered a connection between neurogenesis—the process of generating neurons—and learning deficits in mouse models of fragile X syndrome. Her findings suggest that promoting neurogenesis using stem cells may have therapeutic potential for people with fragile X syndrome and other neurological disorders.