Leading by Example: A Spotlight on Each of Waisman’s Directors

The Waisman Center has a long history of excellent and remarkable leadership. Each director of the center has played a pivotal role in advancing Waisman’s research, service, training, and outreach efforts. This article highlights the Waisman Center’s directors, both past and present, that have allowed the center to proudly follow its mission of advancing knowledge of human development, developmental disabilities, and neurodegenerative diseases.

We need to know STAT: Mechanisms behind GFAP accumulation in Alexander disease involve transcription factor STAT3.

The hallmarks of Alexander disease, aggregation of misfolded GFAP proteins and dysregulation of brain cells called astrocytes, may be stopped and reversed in rodent models with the inactivation of the transcription factor STAT3.

Promising treatment for Alexander disease moves from rat model to human clinical trials

Alexander disease is a progressive and rare neurological disorder with no cure or standard course of treatment. But a new study led by researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison involving a rat model of the disease offers a potential treatment for the typically fatal condition.

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 …

Progress made toward treatment for rare, fatal neurological disease

After more than a decade of work, researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Waisman Center reported promising results in the lab and in animal models that could set the stage for developing a treatment for Alexander disease, a rare and usually fatal neurological disease with no known cure.