The Latest
A Model for Building Belonging in STEM
WID alumna Martel DenHartog, along with Sarah Miller and WID Director Jo Handelsman, recently published a Perspective in the Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education examining how the Tiny Earth Summer Research Course can expand access to research for students at two-year colleges. The article describes how the cohort-based program builds on the Tiny Earth curriculum to give students hands-on university research experience, strengthen scientific and workforce skills, and foster a greater sense of belonging in STEM. The authors also share lessons from the program and considerations for institutions interested in developing similar research experiences.
Karen Schloss Earns H.I. Romnes Faculty Fellowship
Karen Schloss is one of eighteen faculty that have been honored with the H.I. Romnes Fellowships to recognize exceptional research contributions within their first six years from promotion to a tenured position. The award is named in recognition of the late WARF trustees president H.I. Romnes and comes with $60,000 that may be spent over five years.
Researchers Identify New Target in the Gut for Reducing Alzheimer’s risk
Nearly 10 years ago, Federico Rey, a Wisconsin Institute for Discovery Fellow and UW–Madison professor, helped lead research showing that the communities of microbes living in the intestines of people with Alzheimer’s disease differ from those of healthy people. Now, new research builds on that work by examining imidazole propionate, a common compound produced by gut bacteria, and finding that higher levels may contribute to dementia-related changes in the brain.
Undergraduate Researcher Explores How Viruses and Their Parasites Evolve Together
Viruses evolve quickly, often finding ways to escape antiviral drugs. A new study led by WID undergraduate Shiv Muthupandiyan explores whether new antiviral therapies could evolve alongside them. The research focuses on defective interfering particles, or DIPs, mutant viral particles that act as parasites of viruses. DIPs cannot reproduce on their own, so they use a virus’s replication machinery and consume resources inside infected cells, slowing viral growth. By modeling how viruses and DIPs adapt to one another over time, the study offers a new way to think about antiviral therapies that may be better able to resist viral escape.
