Waisman Center Director, Albee Messing, is collaborating with researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to better understand the progression of Alexander disease, a rare and fatal neurological disorder with no known cure. In …
Rare Disorders
Biochemical Genetics Clinic helps children live healthier, happier lives
Sam Thompson is two-and-a-half years old and a super-charged giver of hugs.His green eyes sparkle as he first embraces his physician, Jessica Scott Schwoerer, and then his dietitian, Nikki Drilias. Then it’s a quick, laughter-filled …
Better understanding a devastating neurological disease
Waisman Center investigator John Svaren collaborated with Ian Duncan, a professor of veterinary medicine at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and others on a study that offers new insight into a rare human disease, called H-ABC, …
Researchers make headway toward understanding Alexander disease
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have made a surprising and potentially crucial discovery about Alexander disease, a rare and fatal neurological disorder with no known cure. Using a mouse model for this disease, which …
Study finds a key to nerve regeneration
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have found a switch that redirects helper cells in the peripheral nervous system into “repair” mode, a form that restores damaged axons. Axons are long fibers on neurons that …
A rare gift: Family endows professorship in memory of children
In their photographs, Jenni and Kyle Geurkink look like happy, healthy children. Jenni has a captivating smile and a twinkle in her eyes. Kyle is a sturdy toddler who loves brooms, mops and any occasion …
A case of (peripheral) nerves
Every day, Waisman Center researcher John Svaren deals with nerves – peripheral nerves, that is. Peripheral nerves connect the brain and spinal cord to our limbs and organs, serving as vital communication relays that allow …
Su-Chun Zhang has a unique view of Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research
From his sixth-floor laboratory in the University of Wisconsin Waisman Center, Su-Chun Zhang, MD, PhD, has a unique vantage point on the second tower of the Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research (WIMR II), which is nearing completion.
Rare disease yields clues about broader brain pathology
Alexander disease is a devastating brain disease that almost nobody has heard of — unless someone in the family is afflicted with it. Alexander disease strikes young or old, and in children destroys white matter in the front of the brain.
A Promising Sight
But the specks in the Petri dishes were the result of years of research in the laboratory of David Gamm, an ophthalmologist at the UW’s Waisman Center. And as members of the Reese family carefully cradled the dishes, they held the future of their descendants’ eyesight in their hands.