Category: News

Mentor award winners guide undergraduate learning

The nominations for this year’s recipients read like a textbook of great mentoring practices – meeting students where they’re at, getting to know them as scholars and individuals, and guiding their learning with just the right mix of challenge and support.

After three decades of diverse service in genetics practice and regional outreach, David Wargowski will retire

From his arrival at the Department of Pediatrics in 1990 and for the next 30-plus years, David Wargowski, MD, professor in the Division of Genetics and Metabolism, has served tirelessly, addressing genetically based diseases and health conditions of the region’s children.

John Svaren honored with Vilas professorship

Professor of Comparative Biosciences at the School of Veterinary Medicine and Waisman Center investigator, John Svaren, PhD, is a recipient of a Vilas Distinguished Professorship.

At UW-Madison, autistic students navigate personal, classroom obstacles

There are 99 UW-Madison students on the autism spectrum, according to the McBurney Disability Resource Center’s 2022-23 annual report.

A new grant from the Eagles Autism Foundation will help advance Waisman research on the genetic cause of autism

Studying the biological underpinnings of autism is exceptionally complex with more than 1000 genes thought to be associated with autism.

Waisman Center welcomes new affiliated investigator Justin Wolter

By Emily Leclerc, Waisman Science Writer The Waisman Center welcomes a new affiliated investigator Justin Wolter, PhD, assistant professor of medical genetics. Wolter comes to Waisman and UW–Madison from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), where he completed his postdoctoral fellowship. “The scientific and intellectual environment at UW is just amazing,” Wolter …

Waisman postdoctoral fellow receives prestigious Warren Alpert Distinguished Scholar Award

Yu (Kristy) Guo, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Waisman investigator Xinyu Zhao, PhD, professor of neuroscience, was recently selected to receive the prestigious Warren Alpert Distinguished Scholar Award.

Research Insights: Autistic children’s mental health affected by the quality of their parents’ romantic relationships, mental health — and vice versa

Brianna Piro-Gambetti, who received her PhD in Human Development & Family Studies (HDFS) in 2023, is the lead author of a recently published study that examined how the mental health of autistic children is connected with the mental health and romantic relationship quality of their parents.

Barriers and facilitators of inclusive healthcare for autistic adults call for a system-level approach to improving health outcomes

Barriers to accessing inclusive healthcare for autistic adults

New research first to test 60-year-old theory on autism

Autism is often associated with complex tasks like social processing and language and the later-developing brain regions that control them. But what if autism is more rooted in the earliest developing and most reflex-like part of the brain – the brainstem?