Category: Alzheimer’s Disease

UW-Madison biomanufacturer offers essential gene-transfer capacity

Adeno-associated virus (AAV) is used to insert replacement genes, and its role in genetic therapy trials is expanding quickly, says Carl Ross, managing director of Waisman Biomanufacturing. The AAV production reflects the Waisman lab’s growing importance in the biopharma business, as it’s the only facility on campus meeting FDA “good manufacturing practices” rules for large-scale manufacturing of biological therapies.

The chatter within our cells

Waisman Center investigator Luigi Puglielli had trouble with only one class in medical school: biochemistry. Yet today he uses biochemical approaches to study some of the vital molecular mechanisms that regulate brain physiology and pathology across the lifespan. Puglielli, who is a professor in the Department of Medicine, focuses on trying to understand how proteins …

Thoughts of Gratitude: Dan Campbell

Dan Campbell passed away recently. He was a prolific artist and contributed many pieces of his work to the Waisman Center’s Harvey A. Stevens Collection of Art by People with Disabilities. Dan and his family also participated in a number of research studies at the Waisman Center over the course of more than 30 years, …

Single brain cells reveal genes controlling formation, development

In one of the first studies to “read” the genetic activity inside individual brain cells, University of Wisconsin—Madison neuroscientist Xinyu Zhao has identified the genetic machinery that causes maturation in a young nerve cell.

Video game research shows promise for autism

At the age of 9, Xavier Hansen already has it figured out. Someday, he is going to be the boss. “He has great aspirations to make things,” says his mom, Gail. “His goals are to own a movie theater. He wants to be in charge. If he wants something, he’ll find a way to get it.”

UW researchers find possible treatment for Alzheimer’s

January 19, 2016 Channel 3000 University of Wisconsin researchers say they’ve found a treatment to clean up the plaques that form in the brain of mice with Alzheimer’s disease. The research published in the journal Brain shows that compounds that inhibit two cellular proteins can help clean up the plaques found in the brain of …

Waisman Center partners on new multi-site NIH initiative to find Alzheimer’s biomarkers in Down syndrome

Brad Christian, PhD, Waisman investigator and associate professor of medical physics and psychiatry, is part of a new National Institutes of Health initiative to identify biomarkers and track the progression of Alzheimer’s in people with Down syndrome.

Down syndrome helps researchers understand Alzheimer’s disease

The link between a protein typically associated with Alzheimer’s disease and its impact on memory and cognition may not be as clear as once thought, according to a new study from the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Waisman Center. The findings are revealing more information about the earliest stages of the neurodegenerative disease. The researchers — including …

After 40 years, Waisman Center still at forefront of research on the brain

The telegram from President John F. Kennedy to University of Wisconsin President Fred Harrington was both eerie and visionary. Eerie because it was delivered Nov. 20, 1963 – just two days before Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas – and visionary because it seemed to anticipate the challenges confronting science in its quest to explore the human brain.

Waisman Center: Celebrating 40 years of advancing knowledge about developmental disabilities

Although its roots are deeper, going back to its earliest iteration as the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Memorial Laboratories in the early 1960s, the Waisman Center this year celebrates 40 years of research, teaching and outreach in the interest of developmental disabilities.