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.
Research
UW-Madison researchers discuss procedure that helped boy hear
“When we think in general about children who are deaf and could benefit from the opportunity to gain access to speech and to language be mainstreamed… there’s a lot of excitement,” Professor Ruth Litovsky says about the surgery Grayson received.
Professor helps ‘Sesame Street’ reach children of imprisoned parents
By Käri Knutson It doesn’t get talked about much, yet nearly 2.7 million children are growing up with a parent who is in prison, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. What do you tell …
Cap Times’ Evjue Foundation distributes $1 million to UW, area nonprofits
Checks totaling more than $1 million have been sent to 74 area nonprofits and to 17 project managers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison by The Evjue Foundation, the charitable arm of The Capital Times.
The World Wide Web
Compassion is now a core component of Davidson’s groundbreaking work at the University of Wisconsin’s Center for Investigating Healthy Minds, the brain research facility at the Waisman Center where the Dalai Lama visited for its grand opening and to which he recently made a rare personal donation of $50,000.
Dalai Lama to lead ‘Change your Mind Change the World 2013’ event May 15
Event organizers today announced that the Dalai Lama will visit Madison on May 15, 2013, to lead “Change your Mind Change the World 2013,” a series of panel discussions with thought leaders from a variety of fields, including neuroscience, economics and sustainability, moderated by Arianna Huffington and Daniel Goleman.
Authors: Develop Digital Games to Improve Brain Function and Well-Being
Neuroscientists should help to develop compelling digital games that boost brain function and improve well-being, say two professors specializing in the field in a commentary article published in the science journal Nature.
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.
Waisman Center: Celebrating 40 years of advancing knowledge about developmental disabilities
Although its roots are deeper, going back to its earliest iteration as the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Memorial Laboratories in the early 1960s, the Waisman Center this year celebrates 40 years of research, teaching and outreach in the interest of developmental disabilities.
October is Down Syndrome Awareness Month
October is Down Syndrome Awareness Month.