Adults with autism find new source for job interview advice

Knowing what an employer wants to hear can make all the difference during a job interview. For adults with an autism-spectrum disorder, those answers can be harder to come by. And without work, they face the prospect of a much less independent life.

William E. MacLean, Jr., PhD joins Waisman Center

In August 2014, Bill MacLean, PhD, will join the Waisman Center as the associate director of the University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD)

Mailick to join graduate school

MADISON – Marsha Mailick, a long time University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty member and veteran of research leadership roles at the university, has been selected by Chancellor Rebecca Blank as interim successor to Martin Cadwallader, who is returning to the faculty. Mailick, who currently serves as the director of the Waisman Center, will formally assume a …

Waisman Center helps adolescents with autism transition into adulthood

The Adolescents and Adults with Autism study began at the Waisman Center after the realization that little research had been done on the transition from adolescence to adulthood for individuals with autism and their families, according to the center’s website.

Fulbright award sends Litovsky to Australia for hearing research

Ruth Litovsky, professor of communication sciences and disorders, has been named a 2014-15 Fulbright Scholar for the East-Asia Pacific Region. Litovsky will collaborate with colleagues in the Bionics Institute in Melbourne, Australia, on the use of novel imaging techniques known as functional near infra-red spectroscopy (fNIRS). She plans to learn about ways in which the …

Study helps unravel the tangled origin of ALS

By studying nerve cells that originated in patients with a severe neurological disease, a University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher has pinpointed an error in protein formation that could be the root of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Autism rates now 1 in 68 U.S. children

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 1 in 68 children (or 14.7 per 1,000 eight-year-olds) in multiple communities in the United States has been identified with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).  This new estimate is roughly 30 percent higher than previous estimates reported in 2012 of 1 in 88 children (11.3 per …

Autism may be linked to faulty prenatal brain growth in at least some kids, small study says

March 28, 2014 Lindsey Tanner, Associated Press A small study that examined brains from children who died found abnormal patterns of cell growth in autistic children. The research bolsters evidence that something before birth might cause autism, at least in some cases. Clusters of disorganized brain cells were discovered in tissue samples from brain regions …

Recap: Waisman Center Day with the Experts: Cerebral Palsy

To kick off March, Cerebral Palsy Awareness Month, the Waisman Center hosted its first Waisman Center Day with the Experts: Cerebral Palsy on Saturday, March 1. Nearly 200 people attended the outreach event, which was a partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

An Update from the United States National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute-funded Production Assistance for Cellular Therapies (PACT) Program: A Decade of Cell Therapy

Introduction Recognizing the emerging field of therapeutic cell-based treatments for a growing number of diseases, including the field of regenerative medicine, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) held a workshop in 2002, where experts in cellular product manufacturing and clinical trial design came together to discuss the state of the cellular therapy field …