Category: Year

New gift to support research and training

A new estate gift will help support research and expand undergraduate and graduate student training in the area of intellectual and developmental disabilities at the Waisman Center. This significant gift – more than $1 million from the estate of Genevieve Lyda – establishes the Lyda Family Fund, a permanent endowment for the Waisman Center. Genevieve …

STEM CELLS @ 20

Twenty years ago, a seminal discovery by researchers at UW–Madison introduced stem cells to the world. Since then, this new tool has transformed science and opened new doors for translational research. Stem cells are undifferentiated “master cells” capable of transforming into any of the body’s cell types. Waisman Center researchers have been at the forefront …

Small miracle: Stem cells drive research and entrepreneurship in Madison

From five examples of human embryonic stem cells in 1998 to 1,364 different lines of stem cell cultures today, the field of stem cell research has come so far in the past 20 years. The Capital Times highlights stem cell research milestones, challenges and future prospects on the 20th anniversary of stem cell research at …

UW researcher using stem cells to create ‘spare part’ for blindness

To mark the 20th anniversary of the stem cell discovery at UW–Madison, the Wisconsin State Journal featured a series of stories on stem cell research, highlighting the work of Waisman Center investigators David Gamm, Anita Bhattacharyya, Su-Chun Zhang, affiliate Randall Ashton, as well as Waisman Biomanufacturing. Researchers at the Waisman Center use stem cells— undifferentiated …

Years after promise of stem cells seemed to be fading, clinical trials underway

A story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reflects on the history of stem cells and its future direction. Two decades after the first stem cell breakthrough, the promising biological discovery is beginning to take steps toward clinical trials. Waisman Center investigator David Gamm, who researches stem cell therapies for diseases of the eye, reflects on …

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 …