Category: 2018

Families navigate an autism diagnosis with interventional services, networks

Waisman Center social workers Paola Perez and Erin Thomson were featured guests on the Larry Meiller Show on Wisconsin Public Radio’s the Ideas Network. Perez and Thomson discussed a broad range of autism-related topics including diagnosis, treatment services, and support for families. The show aired on October, 25, 2018. Listen to the full broadcast here.

Mutation in common protein triggers tangles, chaos inside brain cells

In a study published today, Waisman Center investigators Su-Chun Zhang, Albee Messing and colleagues point to new understandings of the broad range of effects that result from the GFAP mutation impacting astrocytes — important supporting cells which comprise 20 to 40 percent of all cells in the brain. Cells donated by patients with Alexander disease …

Giizhik, young artist with autism, featured on WPT’s ‘Wisconsin Life”

Wisconsin Public Television’s Wisconsin Life recently featured Klawiter, a young artist with autism, who for the past decade has been designing and selling holiday cards across Sawyer County, raising awareness for autism and more than $18,000 dollars for autism research at the Waisman Center. Diagnosed with autism at age five, Giizhik (whose name means “White …

Studying Alzheimer’s disease in individuals with Down syndrome

About once every year and a half, Erin Harvey takes time off of her job as a teacher’s aide and along with her mom, Nancy, makes a two and a half hour drive from her home in central Illinois to the University of Wisconsin–Madison Waisman Center to “embark on an afternoon of adventure.” At the …

Scientists seek to improve quality control for genome editing therapies in the eye

Waisman Center investigator David Gamm, MD, PhD, and affiliate Krishanu Saha, PhD, are part of a team of scientists at the University of Wisconsin- Madison who were recently granted a major award from the National Institute of Health’s Somatic Cell Genome Editing Consortium (SCGE). This award will support research focused on developing quality control methods …

Whirling the Waisman Way with Team Tristan

Picture a crisp October morning in Madison, Wisconsin – the bright colors of fall leaves, mists over the blue waters of Lake Mendota and – on one Sunday (the 14th this year) – a crowd of excited people waiting to run, walk or roll in the 2018 Waisman Whirl for ALL Abilities!

Twenty years of stem cells

In 1998, UW–Madison developmental biologist James Thomson introduced the world to the first laboratory-derived human embryonic stem cells. Twenty years later, UW–Madison remains at the forefront of stem cell research. The Waisman Center at UW–Madison is a hub of stem cell research, especially in the fields of human development, developmental disabilities and neurodegerative disorders. You …

Blockages in nerve-cell protein ‘factory’ implicated in neurodegenerative disease

Research by Waisman affiliate Jon Audhya shows new insight into the molecular basis underlying the neurodegenerative condition, hereditary spastic paraplegia (HPS). His recent study shows how a mutation in the TFG gene–one of several linked to HPS–impairs neurons from forming structures needed to transmit signals properly. Read the full article, please visit https://www.med.wisc.edu/news-and-events/2018/september/nerve-cell-protein-factory/

Mental health in pregnancy may affect development of newborns’ brains

By Marianne Spoon, UW Communications Many factors can influence the development of a baby during pregnancy and after birth, but until recently, researchers knew little about the relationship between an expectant mother’s mental health and the subsequent development of her baby after birth. Findings from a University of Wisconsin–Madison team published Monday, Aug. 27, in …

Researchers unveil new strategy to correct for motion during MRI scans

Individuals undergoing a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan often need to minimize movements for up to 10 minutes at a time to maximize scan quality. That can be challenging for many people.