Category: Neurodegenerative

Stem cell project to create new model to study brain development and Down syndrome

Waisman Center researchers are creating a new approach to study how changes to brain development in the womb result in intellectual disability in people with Down syndrome.

A new computational pipeline connects disease and discovery at the cellular level

Could Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia be biologically connected?

The identities of enzymes: study further defines the function of a potential target for Alzheimer’s therapy

A new study from the lab of UW-Madison professor of medicine Luigi Puglielli, MD, PhD, opens a door to potential treatments for diseases of age, such as Alzheimer’s disease, by defining the roles of two enzymes that are imperative to protein production.

Individualized brain cell grafts reverse Parkinson’s symptoms in monkeys

Grafting neurons grown from monkeys’ own cells into their brains relieved the debilitating movement and depression symptoms associated with Parkinson’s disease, researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison reported today.

New NIH-funded initiative will examine Alzheimer’s disease in people with Down syndrome

A team of researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison is part of a new multi-institution effort to better understand Alzheimer’s disease in adults with Down syndrome. Adults with Down syndrome are at high risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease beginning in their late 40s, because of their unique biology. The vast majority will eventually develop the …

Stem cells can repair Parkinson’s-damaged circuits in mouse brains

The mature brain is infamously bad at repairing itself following damage like that caused by trauma or strokes, or from degenerative diseases like Parkinson’s. Stem cells, which are endlessly adaptable, have offered the promise of better neural repair. But the brain’s precisely tuned complexity has stymied the development of clinical treatments.

New initiative to study Parkinson disease

Su-Chun Zhang, MD, PhD, the Steenbock Professor in Behavioral and Neural Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Waisman Center investigator, is part of an interdisciplinary team of researchers selected by the Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s (ASAP) initiative to receive $9 million over three years for the “Parkinson5D: Deconstructing Proximal Disease Mechanisms Across Cells, Space and Progression” or PD5D project.

Running toward renewal: new study links physical activity with cognitive health

Research has shown voluntary running is an activity most commonly associated with the reversal of negative impacts of aging and neurodegeneration, but little is understood about why that is.

Mancheski Foundation funds next-gen research on Down syndrome and Alzheimer’s

A gift from the Mancheski Foundation continues to provide integral support to doctoral student Matthew Zammit as he furthers his research on the progression of Alzheimer’s disease in individuals with Down syndrome. Zammit is beginning his fourth year as a doctoral student working in the laboratory of Bradley Christian, PhD, a Waisman investigator and professor …

UW-Madison brain scan studies seek to pinpoint signs of Alzheimer’s

Waisman Center investigator Brad Christian and Waisman Center affiliates Sterling Johnson and Barbara Bendlin were featured in a Nov. 26 Wisconsin State Journal article this week about Alzheimer’s research. The article is a part of a series on Alzheimer’s called “Fading away: Wisconsin’s dementia crisis,” which chronicles the doubling rate of dementia patients in Wisconsin.