Month: July 2019

Ender Tekin, PhD – Slide of the Week

Loss of vision can frequently lead to a loss of independence and a reduction in quality of life for an individual. The Tekin lab is interested in harnessing new mobile technologies to provide access to environmental information for persons with vision loss.

Emotion-detection applications built on outdated science, report warns

Facial Movements Are Unreliable Signals of Emotion, Researchers Say Software that purportedly reads emotions in faces is being deployed or tested for a variety of purposes,  including surveillance, hiring, clinical diagnosis, and market research. But a new scientific report finds that facial movements are an inexact gauge of a person’s feelings, behaviors or intentions. “It …

Archery event raises funds for autism research

The nonprofit Hononegah Archery is hosting the second annual Julie’s Archers for Autism and Rock River Music festival from noon-9 p.m. on Aug. 3 at Settlers Park in Rockton. Funds raised will support autism research at the Waisman Center. Read the full story here: Archery event raises funds for autism research  

John Svaren, PhD – Slide of the Week

Peripheral nerve myelination is adversely affected in the most common form of the hereditary peripheral neuropathy called Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease. This form, classified as CMT1A, is caused by a 1.4 Mb duplication on chromosome 17, which includes the abundantly expressed Schwann cell myelin gene, Peripheral Myelin Protein 22 (PMP22).

Masatoshi Suzuki, DVM, PhD – Slide of the Week

Human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) present exciting opportunities to study disease processes in vitro. Advances in bioengineering allow us to differentiate cells in a system more relevant to their native environment in order to observe naturally occurring phenomena.

Athletes from Special Olympics add important perspectives to research

For many, a mention of Special Olympics invokes images of accomplished athletes, a community of inclusion and support, and the joy of athletic competition. But what many may not know is that Special Olympics is the world’s largest public health organization for individuals with intellectual disabilities. Research shows that individuals with disabilities experience high rates …

Audra Sterling, PhD – Slide of the Week

This study investigated the production of demonstratives (e.g., this, that, these) and personal pronouns in school-age boys with idiopathic autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and school-age boys with fragile X syndrome (FXS) with a co-diagnosis of ASD (FXS+ASD).