Stem cells are remarkable cells that have the ability to become almost any kind of specialized cells in our bodies. Given this extraordinary potential, how does a stem cell keep from having an identity crisis? …
Stem Cells
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 …
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 …
Lighting up the search for a therapy for fragile X syndrome
Waisman Center researchers Anita Bhattacharyya and Xinyu Zhao are looking to make stem cells glow. That glow will tell them that they have successfully turned on a gene that is usually turned off in individuals …
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 …
Waisman researchers part of several UW2020 awards
Several research and infrastructure projects featuring Waisman Center researchers as the primary or co-investigator have been selected for the second round of funding through the UW2020
Cell transplant treats Parkinson’s in mice under control of designer drug
A University of Wisconsin—Madison neuroscientist has inserted a genetic switch into nerve cells so a patient can alter their activity by taking designer drugs that would not affect any other cell.
Experimental drug cancels effect from key intellectual disability gene in mice
A University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher who studies the most common genetic intellectual disability has used an experimental drug to reverse—in mice—damage from the mutation that causes the syndrome.
Waisman researchers win an inaugural UW2020 award
An innovative project led by Waisman Center researchers Anita Bhattacharyya and Su-Chun Zhang is one of fourteen research initiatives that have been chosen for the first round of funding by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education for the UW2020: WARF Discovery Initiative.
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.