Author: lrrowley

Peter Ferrazzano, MD

Title: Suppression of microglia activation after hypoxia-ischemia results in age-dependent improvements in neurologic injury. Legend:  Figure 1. Minocycline treatment suppresses the microglial response to hypoxia-ischemia (HI) in neonatal and juvenile mice.  The number of CD11b+/CD45+ cells in ipsilateral hippocampus (A) cortex (B), and striatum (C) relative to the corresponding contralateral brain region (IL/CL) were determined …

$1.25 million legacy gift will support brain injury research at the Waisman Center

A new legacy gift will help researchers and clinicians at the Waisman Center continue to search for ways to benefit individuals and families whose lives have been impacted by brain injuries and developmental disabilities. This significant gift comes from Richard and Johanna Stocker, who recently made the decision to include the Waisman Center in their …

Brain cells by the billions

Leaders of the University of Wisconsin–Madison lab that first transformed human stem cells into brain cells have started a company that produces and sells specialized neurons to drug researchers. BrainXell develops neurons from stem cells in its Madison lab, then freezes them for shipment. Once thawed in the customer’s lab, the cells undergo a final …

Innovations start up at Waisman

What do Night Owl Support Systems, the Trace Center, the Center for Healthy Minds, and Stratatech all have in common? The Waisman Center at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Over the years, the Waisman Center has catalyzed the inception or growth of many unique programs. Several of these have developed into independent centers or companies with …

Susan Ellis Weismer, PhD

Title: Brief Report: Fast mapping predicts differences in concurrent and later language abilities in children with ASD. Legend:  Receptive and expressive language at age 3½ and age 5½ by fast mapping profile group. PLS-4 = Preschool Language Scale, 4th Edition. Error bars represent one standard error.  Left panel: At age 3½, poor learners had significantly lower receptive …

Richie Davidson, PhD

Title: Enhanced Prefrontal-Amygdala Connectivity Following Childhood Adversity as a Protective Mechanism Against Internalizing in Adolescence Legend: Childhood adversity predicts greater amygdala–medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) functional connectivity (FC) in adolescence, but it is moderated by internalizing (Int) symptoms. Functional connectivity estimates were derived from the negative vs. neutral  image contrast, using a seed-based approach. The seed …

Erik Dent, PhD

Title: KIF1A dynamically colocalizes with syt-IV and invades dendritic spines along microtubules. Legend: (a) eGFP-KIF1A colocalizes with mCherry-syt-IV in the dendritic shaft and moves together over time as detected in time-lapse images and in kymographs (scale bar, 5 mm). (b) Kymographs demonstrating that KIF1A (green arrows) does not colocalize with mitochondria (red arrow) in the …

Whirling the Waisman Way

What better way to spend a crisp fall day than to go on a three mile walk with your 6, 4 and 1-year old children AND raise funds to benefit individuals and families affected by developmental disabilities and neurodegenerative diseases? That’s what Jessica and Kasey Feiner thought when they signed up for the first annual …

Christopher Coe, PhD

Title: Metabolomic analysis of CSF indicates brain metabolic impairment precedes hematological indices of anemia in the iron-deficient infant monkey. Legend: NMR spectra with typical metabolite peaks in the cerebrospinal fluid of  one iron-sufficient (IS) and one iron-deficient (ID) rhesus monkey.  Differences in citrate (cit), glutamine (gin), and pyruvate (pyr) indicate that brain energetics are affected …

Qiang Chang, PhD

Title: Altered flip/flop alternative splicing causes a reduction of the decay time constant of the AMPA receptor. Legend: (a) RNA-Seq analysis reveals a significant change of the relative flip/flop ratio of Gria2 in Mecp2 KO cortex. (b) qRT-PCR confirms the significant reduction of flip/flop ratio of Gria2 in Mecp2 KO. (c) qRT-PCR results show that …