Advances

(Advances gives a glimpse of the many significant research projects at the university. Tell us about your discoveries by e-mailing: wisweek@news.wisc.edu.)

PanVera ties run deep
PanVera Corp., a University Research Park company that turns genetic information into tools for drug discovery, is a textbook example of how university-industry partnerships can be vital to a company’s success.

One of PanVera’s platform technologies, called fluorescence polarization, was pioneered by former pharmacy professor Catherine Royer and is now licensed to PanVera. The company also assembled a scientific advisory board of UW–Madison researchers to help steer its development of drug discovery tools.

PanVera, founded in 1992, has many close collaborations with UW–Madison faculty, including two recent additions from the university’s strategic hiring program, engineering professors Daniel Van der Weide and David Beebe. With Beebe, PanVera is partnering on research to develop microfluidic systems, or “laboratories on a chip,” to enhance biomanufacturing. They are also working with Beebe on biosensing systems that may provide advance warning of environmental toxins.

Other PanVera technologies are built around the research advances of biochemistry professors Jack Gorski, Alan Attie and Hector DeLuca, on the expression of various medically important genetic receptors in humans.

PanVera is one of more than 170 Wisconsin technology-based companies that have strong ties to UW–Madison people or research, according to a 1999 study by UIR. More than 100 of these firms have started in the last 10 years, reflecting the increased emphasis at UW–Madison on technology transfer.

Inventions rank WARF among top in nation
The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation ranked third among all U.S. colleges and universities with 278 inventions disclosed in 1999, according to a survey conducted by an independent professional organization.

And the 79 inventions patented during the year ranked WARF seventh in the nation. In addition, WARF had 185 licenses that produced revenue, ranking it seventh in the country, says the survey by the Association of University Technology Managers Inc., a nonprofit corporation of more than 2,400 technology managers.

Companies using discoveries patented by WARF for UW–Madison professors created more than $1 billion in gross revenues and $18 million in income for the foundation. The foundation provided more than $35 million to support research and excellence at the UW–Madison last year.

Laid-back fish grow better
If you fish for sport, you want a trout or bass that puts up a fight. But if you raise fish for the frying pan, you’re better off with fish that are more laid back.

“Stress reduces fish survival and growth,” says Jeffrey Malison, director of the Aquaculture Program. Malison and his colleagues have been studying how to minimize stress so fish are healthier and grow more rapidly. The scientists also hope to produce domesticated strains of trout and perch for fish farming.

Most agricultural animals were domesticated hundreds of years ago, but the trout and perch that fish farmers raise are nearly identical to wild stocks. Malison has shown that minimizing stress can increase perch growth up to 30 percent.

“It may be possible to genetically select faster-growing fish based on the concentration of a hormone in their blood several hours after they’ve encountered a stress,” Malison says. “Such fish might show improvements in many areas besides growth, such as disease resistance and domesticated behavior.”