Tag Health & medicine
Research may yield improved treatment for diseased lungs
A multi-institutional team of engineers, scientists and clinicians from the University of Wisconsin–Madison will study large-artery biomechanics that could play a role in heart failure in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension.
Decoding protein structures helps illuminate cause of diabetes
Any photographer can vouch for the difficulty of capturing a clear picture of a moving target. When it comes to molecules, however, sometimes the motion is exactly what scientists want to see.
Food science students get taste of big leagues with Miller Park internship
It's a Milwaukee Brewers fan's dream: Spend the summer at Miller Park, get paid to do it, and get some resume-building professional experience to boot. This month, UW–Madison seniors Maureen Riley and Hannah Buchen begin summer internships with Milwaukee Sportservice, the company that provides food, beverage and retail services to Milwaukee's Miller Park.
Fishing for new anti-inflammatory, cancer drugs
Though cell movement and migration in the body play a central role in mediating injury and disease, including inflammatory responses and cancer metastasis, drugs designed to stifle cells’ nomadic tendencies are scarce. A new interdisciplinary research project funded by the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery seed grant program seeks to develop a novel drug-discovery process that may start to fill this gap.
Researchers seek early detection for hard-to-diagnose disease
Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is characterized by infertility due to anovulation, abnormal secretion of androgens and other hormones, and insulin resistance. PCOS is the most common female endocrine disorder, affecting 4-7 percent of women in their reproductive years — the syndrome accounts for 75 percent of all anovulations. PCOS has staggering adverse physiological, psychological and financial consequences for women’s reproductive health.
In quest for less risky drugs, scientists listen to neurons
Since the 1950s, doctors have been ordering medications such as Ritalin to ease symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and prescriptions now number in the millions. Still, though highly effective, so-called “psychostimulant” drugs are not without risks, leaving many seeking safer alternatives, especially for children.
Ultrathin films deliver DNA as possible gene therapy tool
Gene therapy - the idea of using genetic instructions rather than drugs to treat disease - has tickled scientists' imaginations for decades, but is not yet a viable therapeutic method. One sizeable hurdle is getting the right genes into the right place at the right time.
Breaching a gateway to the cell, drug discovery
With support from the Discovery Seed Grant Program, Wisconsin scientists are poised to bring a novel approach to finding new medicines by deploying the atomic force microscope — the foremost tool of the nanotechnologist — to screen agents as they dock with critical cell receptors.
Nanoscale packaging could aid delivery of cancer-fighting drugs
A University of Wisconsin–Madison pharmacy professor aims to improve the delivery of cancer-fighting drugs by targeting them more selectively to tumors and boosting their solubility in water.