Title: Age at menopause by CGG repeat length Legend: There was a significant curvilinear association between CGG repeat length and age at menopause (b = .003, p < .01). Neither maternal education nor smoking history …
Fragile X Syndrome
Experimental 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.
Marsha R. Mailick, PhD
Legend: Fig. 1. Frequency of specific CGG repeat lengths >40 for men and women. Citation: Maenner MJ, Baker MW, Broman KW, Tian J, Barnes JK, Atkins A, McPherson E, Hong J, Brilliant MH, Mailick MR. (2013). …
Motherhood 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.
Anita Bhattacharyya, PhD
Title: iPSC-Derived Forebrain Neurons from FXS Individuals Show Defects in Initial Neurite Outgrowth Legend: Left panel: Skin cells from individuals with fragile X syndrome (FXS) can be reprogrammed into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) that …
Fragile X proteins involved in proper neuron development
Fragile X syndrome is the most common inherited intellectual disability and the greatest single genetic contributor to autism. Unlocking the mechanisms behind fragile X could make important revelations about the brain.
After 40 years, Waisman Center still at forefront of research on the brain
The telegram from President John F. Kennedy to University of Wisconsin President Fred Harrington was both eerie and visionary. Eerie because it was delivered Nov. 20, 1963 – just two days before Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas – and visionary because it seemed to anticipate the challenges confronting science in its quest to explore the human brain.
New registry to accelerate research on fragile X syndrome
As researchers delve further into the genetic basis for disease, they face a conundrum: finding enough affected people who can fill out a true picture of mutations that can vary from one person to another.
Fragile X protein may play role in Alzheimer’s disease
A brain afflicted by severe Alzheimer’s disease is a sad sight, a wreck of tangled neural connections and organic rubble as the lingering evidence of a fierce internal battle.