Category Health & Wellness
To sleep, perchance to forget
The debate in sleep science has gone on for a generation. People and other animals sicken and die if they are deprived of sleep, but why is sleep so essential?
New approaches in neuroscience show it’s not all in your head
“How we experience the world affects us in more ways than we previously thought,” says Richard Davidson, a professor of psychology and psychiatry at UW–Madison and director of the Center for Healthy Minds.
Use of mobile app reduced alcohol and drug use
The application called Seva provides a discussion board, interactive modules to teach problem solving, tools for coping with cravings and high-risk situations, and other features.
UW startup’s invention featured at Paris fashion-tech show
The wearable system developed by Torq Labs is designed to help runners avoid injury by tracking leg movement with wireless sensors that transmit data to a smartphone app.
The doc sets the goal, then ‘Digital Intern’ goes to work
A UW–Madison spinoff company is refining a medical management software package designed to help doctors treat patients more efficiently.
From fungi to humans, ‘smart valves’ assist communication within, between cells
Trees. Fungi. Monkeys. Fish. Your aunt and uncle. Without fusion pores built of SNARE proteins, they can't exist.
Cancer patients who tell their life story find more peace, less depression
A new study finds that delivering an edited life and cancer story elicited by a phone conversation measurably enhances the sense of peace in the face of looming death.
Bringing cheap and accurate tuberculosis tests to Africa
Researchers are developing a "robust, simple and inexpensive way to increase the sensitivity of an existing TB test" by integrating a step very similar to a pregnancy test.
As influenza looms, Madison firm advances human trials of revolutionary vaccine
One of the most promising universal flu vaccines is being developed by FluGen, a spinoff from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Next up is an experimental trial.
Study advances gene therapy for glaucoma
A new study shows an improved tactic for delivering new genes into the eye's drain, called the trabecular meshwork, offering a promising treatment for glaucoma.
Waisman research into rare syndrome offers hope for families
Waisman Center research into the molecular mysteries of Rett Syndrome may ultimately help an 8-year-old girl who suffers from the rare neurological disorder.
New stem cell method sheds light on a telltale sign of heart disease
A regenerative biology team at the Morgridge Institute for Research led by Dave Vereide unexpectedly unearthed a powerful new model for studying a hallmark of vascular disease.
Lake Michigan waterfowl botulism deaths linked to warm waters, algae
UW-Madison researchers, with the help of citizen scientists, tracked bird deaths along Lake Michigan, and found that warm waters and algae apparently promoted the growth of botulism toxin-producing bacteria that caused them.
New hope for stopping an understudied heart disease in its tracks
Thanks, in part, to pigs at the Arlington Agricultural Research Station, scientists now are catching up on understanding the roots of calcific aortic valve disease.
Cracking the code of coenzyme Q biosynthesis
A research group is chipping away at many of these knowledge gaps in CoQ production and in understanding the role of CoQ deficiency in human diseases.
To help kids battling a rare disease, scientists forge a genetic link between people and pigs
Scientists and physicians needed a better model to understand neurofibromatosis in order to help affected children. A groundbreaking research partnership at UW–Madison is showing the way.
Progress made toward treatment for rare, fatal neurological disease
Promising results in the lab and in animal models could set the stage for developing a treatment for Alexander disease, a rare and usually fatal neurological disease with no known cure.
‘Amazing Grace’ chorus members take a vacation from Alzheimer’s with singing
The Amazing Grace chorus mixes caregivers and people with dementia; to encourage social contact, the pairs seldom sit side-by-side at performances.
Monkeys infected by mosquito bites further Zika virus research
Monkeys who catch Zika virus through bites from infected mosquitoes develop infections that look like human Zika cases, and may help researchers understand the many ways Zika can be transmitted.
Chimpanzee deaths in Uganda pinned on human cold virus
Scientists investigating an outbreak of respiratory disease in a community of wild chimpanzees in Uganda were surprised and dismayed to discover that rhinovirus C was killing healthy chimps.