Inside Waisman: Meet Lindsay McCary
As a third year graduate student in school psychology at the University of South Carolina, Lindsay McCary, PhD, was looking for a new advisor to help her with her dissertation. At the time, Jane Roberts, PhD, had just joined the Department of Psychology and had some data available on younger children with the genetic disorder fragile X syndrome (FXS). McCary was immediately fascinated by the new professor’s research because it integrated both behavioral and physiological data to examine an individual’s observable characteristics.
September 9, 2020Improved 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, 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, 2020Electronic records pin broad set of health risks on genetic premutation
It was long believed the FMR1 premutation — an excessive number of trinucleotide repeats in the FMR1 gene — had no direct effect on the people who carry it. Until recently, the only recognized effect on the carriers of the flawed gene was the risk of having offspring with fragile X syndrome, a rare but serious form of developmental disability.
August 21, 2019Cell component breakdown suggests possible treatment for multiple neural disorders
UW-Madison research published today (Feb. 11, 2019) reveals how one mutation causes fragile X, the most common inherited intellectual disability. “Fragile X syndrome has been studied as a model of intellectual disability because in theory it’s comparatively simple,” says senior author Xinyu Zhao, a professor of neuroscience in the Waisman Center at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
February 11, 2019Using artificial intelligence for a big impact on neurodevelopmental research
By Meghan Chua Arezoo Movaghar earned her master’s degree in computer science and artificial intelligence. She built models based on the plentiful data found in medical records. So, when she came to UW–Madison as a …
June 29, 2018Study points researchers toward new therapies for fragile X syndrome
By Adityarup “Rup” Chakravorty New insights into the molecular machinations behind fragile X syndrome, the most common inherited intellectual disability, may help researchers develop potential therapies. Fragile X is a genetic condition that affects one …
June 28, 2018Machine learning can detect a genetic disorder from speech recordings
How much information can we extract from a five-minute recording of someone talking? Enough to tell whether that individual may be genetically predisposed to some health complications, according to researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s …
June 12, 2017Genetics and stress interact to shape human health and well-being
This is a story of nature and nurture. Scientists at the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Waisman Center have shown one way in which human genetics and chronic stress interact to shape health and well-being later in …
April 17, 2017Lighting 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 …
September 21, 2016Experimental 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.
April 27, 2016Motherhood and mental health: Exploring the links between anxiety, depression and fragile X premutations
Women who have a child with fragile X syndrome (FXS) and are themselves carriers of a “premutation” in the gene linked to FXS are at an increased risk of developing depression and certain kinds of anxiety disorders over time, according to a recent study by researchers at the Waisman Center and the University of South Carolina.
September 29, 2015- More Fragile X Syndrome posts
Advancing knowledge of human development, developmental disabilities, and neurodegenerative diseases.