Advancing knowledge of human development, developmental disabilities, and neurodegenerative diseases.
A recent story in the New York Times discusses the trauma that parents experience after the death of a child. In particular, elderly parents who lose a child are vulnerable both emotionally and pragmatically. Waisman Center investigators Marsha Mailick, PhD, and Jan Greenberg, PhD, are quoted in the article and their research is highlighted. You …
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 Waisman Center and Wisconsin Institute for Discovery. In a new study published this month in Scientific Reports, the researchers used …
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 life. According to the study, published recently (April 13) in the American Journal of Medical Genetics: Neuropsychiatric Genetics, individuals who …
Title: FMR1 Genotype Interacts with Parenting Stress to Shape Health and Functional Abilities in Older Age. Legend: Among those with modal numbers of CGG repeats (around 30), the figure shows similarity between parents of children with disabilities and parents in the comparison group (i.e., parents of children without disabilities) with respect to the number of …
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). FMR1 CGG expansions: prevalence and sex ratios. American Journal of MedicalGenetics Part B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics. 162B(5):466-73. Abstract: We have estimated …
A positive emotional climate at home and inclusive educational experiences while at school can have long-lasting beneficial effects for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), according to a recent study by researchers at the Waisman Center at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the University of Massachusetts. As children with ASD transition to adulthood many of …
Brad Christian, PhD, Waisman investigator and associate professor of medical physics and psychiatry, is part of a new National Institutes of Health initiative to identify biomarkers and track the progression of Alzheimer’s in people with Down syndrome.
Couples raising a child with developmental disabilities do not face a higher risk of divorce if they have larger families, according to a new study by researchers from the Waisman Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Mothers of kids with disabilities might be more forgetful as they age than other mothers, according to a new study that suggests the stresses of parenting a disabled child wear on mothers’ minds over time.
Fifty-one years ago today, President John F. Kennedy sent a telegram to Harry Waisman congratulating him on the dedication of the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Laboratories. Two days later, the president was dead. Marsha Mailick recounts the connection between the Kennedys and what would become the Waisman Center.
