Advancing knowledge of human development, developmental disabilities, and neurodegenerative diseases.
Several Waisman Center investigators played key roles in crafting research proposals that were recently selected as ‘cluster hires’ by the University of Wisconsin–Madison. UW–Madison’s Cluster Hiring Initiative was launched in 1998 as an innovative partnership between the university, state and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF). According to the UW–Madison Office of the Provost, the …
Laurel Cooper is 8 years old and full of sass and spunk. She finds it hilarious when her older sister, Annalise, gets into trouble. She loves music, and being in the thick of things. Cooper also has Rett syndrome, a rare, non-inherited neurological disorder that mostly affects girls and causes severe deterioration in their ability to speak, eat, move and even breathe easily. Rett syndrome has no cure.
Rett syndrome (RTT) is a debilitating neurodevelopmental disorder caused by mutations in the MECP2 gene. To facilitate the study of cellular mechanisms in human cells, we established several human stem cell lines.
Title: Altered flip/flop alternative splicing causes a reduction of the decay time constant of the AMPA receptor. Legend: (a) RNA-Seq analysis reveals a significant change of the relative flip/flop ratio of Gria2 in Mecp2 KO cortex. (b) qRT-PCR confirms the significant reduction of flip/flop ratio of Gria2 in Mecp2 KO. (c) qRT-PCR results show that …
Title: Cell cycle-linked MeCP2 phosphorylation modulates adult neurogenesis Legend: Representative images (left) of adult neural progenitor cells (aNPCs) isolated from wild type (WT) and Mecp2S421A;S424A/y hippocampus with BrdU pulse labeling, followed by immunocytochemistry analysis. (middle) Representative images of Tuj1+ neurons differentiated from WT and Mecp2S421A;S424A/y aNPCs. (right) Representative images of GFAP+ astrocyte differentiated from WT and …
Many scientists use animals to model human diseases. Mice can be obese or display symptoms of Parkinson's disease. Rats get Alzheimer's and diabetes. But animal models are seldom perfect, and so scientists are looking at a relatively new type of stem cell, called the induced pluripotent stem cell (iPS cell), that can be grown into specialized cells that become useful models for human disease.
