Balancing act: what motor function can tell us about autism
Can the way a person moves be a key identifier of autism? It’s a question that Waisman Center investigator Brittany Travers, PhD, is trying to answer. A new paper from Travers’ lab suggests that movement patterns of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may differ from those with typical development.
June 15, 2020
Serving During COVID-19: AAC Outreach Services
The Communication Development Program (CDP) is an outreach program of the Waisman Center UCEDD at University of Wisconsin, Madison. This program was developed over 30 years ago in partnership with the Dane County Department of …
May 12, 2020The Social Brain: A Beautiful Mind
What images come to mind when you hear the phrase social brain? Do you think of children running around on a playground laughing together? Do you think of problem solving or imagine colorful brain scans? Do you think of autism? These are the questions that inspired a breadth of autism research that was recently evaluated by a team of Waisman scientists and compiled into a new literature review.
May 6, 2020Grant awarded for eye disease research
A big congratulations to researcher Kim Edwards and Waisman investigator David Gamm, MD, PhD, on winning the inaugural Randy Wheelock Research Award. Gamm is also an associate professor of ophthalmology and visual science as well as the director of the McPherson Eye Research Institute.
May 6, 2020Waisman Teacher Recognized with Staff Excellence Award
Academic staff members bring UW–Madison’s mission to life — they are gifted teachers, world-class researchers and dedicated administrators. None of that has changed with COVID-19. If anything, their creativity and dedication is more needed and …
April 28, 2020
Spurred by COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth becomes mainstream at Madison clinics, hospitals
“It was awesome. It saves us from having to take time off work and having to travel,” said Nicole Gantz, whose 8-year-old son Joshua has Down syndrome and an attention disorder. Nicole and Joshua visited with Maria Stanley, a …
April 27, 2020Seth Pollak elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Six University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty have been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, including Waisman Center investigator and psychologist Seth Pollak, PhD. Pollak is the College of Letters & Science Distinguished Professor …
April 27, 2020For Caregivers Of Children With Autism, COVID-19 Conditions Can Present Extra Challenges
It’s hard to think of an aspect of life that hasn't changed since the novel coronavirus began spreading across the globe. Many aspects of life — from work, to school, to travel, shopping and socializing — are dramatically different than they were just a few months ago.
April 13, 2020School closure strains families with children who have disabilities
Waisman investigator Sigan Hartley, PhD, was recently featured in a Wisconsin State Journal article about the difficulties being faced by children with special needs and their families while schools are currently shut down. This article …
April 10, 2020UW–Madison’s EdNeuroLab tackling math learning through brain imaging
In 2012, Edward Hubbard, a cognitive neuroscientist and assistant professor with UW‒Madison’s Department of Educational Psychology, created the Educational Neuroscience Lab to understand — through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) — how the physical changes that occur in children’s brains as they learn may help improve education practices.
April 9, 2020
Improved technique illuminates fragile X protein
Researchers at the Waisman Center made a significant step in understanding the function of a specific protein, FMR1, whose absence causes fragile X syndrome, or FXS. Waisman investigators Xinyu Zhao, PhD, and Anita Bhattacharyya, PhD, with research associate Meng Li, published their paper “Identification of FMR1-regulated molecular networks in human neurodevelopment” in the March issue of the journal Genome Research.
April 9, 2020
Task force offers tools allowing patients on ventilators to communicate
For a patient suffering from a life-threatening illness like COVID-19, communication means everything. If that person is on a ventilator and no visitors are allowed in the room, doctors and nurses must rely on tools …
April 2, 2020Five language outcome measures evaluated for intellectual disabilities studies
A multi-university team of researchers found that expressive language sampling (ELS) can be useful in measuring outcomes in clinical trials targeting fragile X syndrome (FXS). According to their study, ELS, a set of procedures for collecting and analyzing spoken language in natural verbal interactions, yielded five language-related outcome measures that may be useful for treatment studies in intellectual disabilities, especially FXS.
March 25, 2020
Thoughts of Gratitude: Scott Kornstedt
Shortly after Raegan was born to Scott and his wife Carrie, she was diagnosed with phenylketonuria, or PKU — a rare metabolic disorder that prevents her from properly metabolizing phenylalanine, a common amino acid that exists in most proteins. PKU is a rare disorder that affects approximately 16,000 people in the U.S. It is one of 47 disorders for which newborns in Wisconsin are screened. If left untreated, it can cause intellectual disabilities, seizures, among other health-related issues.
March 16, 2020Newly identified cellular trash removal program helps create new neurons
New research by University of Wisconsin–Madison scientists reveals how a cellular filament helps neural stem cells clear damaged and clumped proteins, an important step in eventually producing new neurons.
March 3, 2020Routine test reveals rare diseases
“The newborn screening is most likely the first test of your child’s life,” says Mei Baker, MD, co-director of the Newborn Screening Laboratory at the Wisconsin State Lab of Hygiene and a Waisman Center affiliate investigator.
February 26, 2020Catherine Kanter Named Speech-Language Pathologist of the Year
“I then found in speech-language pathology a wonderful marriage of my love for language and communication and helping individuals with disabilities, and came to UW-Madison to complete my graduate degree,” says Kanter, who has worked as a full-time speech-language pathologist, or SLP, at the Waisman Center since June 2018.
February 24, 2020
Navigating a Brighter Future for Youth with Disabilities and Their Families
Helping youth with disabilities pursue post-high school employment and education opportunities can mean piecing together services from a broad range of agencies and organizations. This can be a challenge for anyone, but for low-income families, …
January 7, 2020New Researcher Uses Machine Learning to Decode Genomic Information
Recent advances in genome sciences — the study of an organism’s complete set of DNA — present a golden opportunity to identify the genetic causes and underlying mechanisms of intellectual and developmental disabilities. These discoveries …
January 7, 2020
Mancheski Foundation Funds Next-Gen Research on Down Syndrome and Alzheimer’s
A gift from the Mancheski Foundation continues to provide integral support to doctoral student Matthew Zammit as he furthers his research on the progression of Alzheimer’s disease in individuals with Down syndrome. Zammit is beginning …
December 19, 2019Major Lifetime Gift Establishes Scholarly Society
It’s been seven years since Dick Morse, MD, a UW alum and retired child psychiatrist, and his lifelong partner, Lawrence M. Connor, MSW, a retired social worker, established an $11 million (now worth an estimated $17 million) planned estate gift for the Morse Society — a multidisciplinary graduate fellowship program at the Waisman Center.
December 19, 2019- More News posts
Advancing knowledge of human development, developmental disabilities, and neurodegenerative diseases.