Lifelike Chemistry Created in Lab Search for Ways to Study Origin of Life
Discovery Fellow David Baum leads a team that has cultivated lifelike chemical reactions while pioneering a new strategy for studying the origin of life.
Stories about discoveries, advancements, and forward-thinking ideas from WID’s research areas, hubs, and key collaborators.
Discovery Fellow David Baum leads a team that has cultivated lifelike chemical reactions while pioneering a new strategy for studying the origin of life.
Xuehua Zhong’s close study of an ordinary plant’s cellular mechanisms could lead to big advances in agriculture and medicine. Zhong is featured in Grow magazine.
An interdisciplinary pair of WID researchers has developed a new nanocapsule delivery method for delivering the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing tool. The new system could be used for many types of gene therapies.
Discover Fellow Andreas Velten and collaborators, drawing on the lessons of classical optics, have shown that it is possible to image complex hidden scenes using a projected “virtual camera” to see around barriers.
WID researchers used a collaborative combination of computational and wet lab experimental techniques to find a connection between a transcription factor and a neurodevelopment gene.
WID researchers Randolph Ashton and Tom Turng partnered on a project to create hydrogel molds that will allow them to more precisely control the three-dimensional structures of organoids.
A team of researchers at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery are combining computational and laboratory methods to more efficiently reprogram differentiated cells into induced pluripotent stem cells. Their work was published in Cell Reports on May 7, 2019.
WID Director Jo Handelsman and biochemistry professor Ophelia Venturelli are part of a multi-university interdisciplinary team awarded a grant to study information transmission in microbial communities and how biological networks communicate.
WID’s Tom Turng envisions a future in which surgeons can order mass-produced artificial blood vessels that arrive ready to use in bypass surgeries.
A growing understanding of microbial communities and their influence on human health or crop productivity has led to the dream of changing these communities to produce benefits. New research at WID addresses this head-on.
WID’s John Yin and colleagues have described initial steps toward achieving chemistries that encode information in a variety of conditions that might mimic the environment of prehistoric Earth.
A paper published in eLife this week by an interdisciplinary team at WID describes new methods for reproducibly manufacturing brain and spinal cord organoids with strict control over morphogenic and developmental processes.
Writing in Nature Ecology & Evolution, WID’s Seyfullah Kotil and Kalin Vetsigian uncover an assembly mechanism that can lead to the spontaneous formation of microbial communities.
A new approach to climate data analysis hopes to improve regional forecasts.
An international team of researchers including WID scientists has discovered new mechanisms to regulate the activity of a gene essential in metabolism, with implications for pathologies related to alterations in glucose levels in the body, such as diabetes or metastasis in some types of cancer.
With Wisconsin’s short growing seasons, reducing a plant’s life cycle and completing the season earlier “could be very important for many crops.”
A team of researchers is developing a new approach for maintaining open blood vessels in the wake of surgeries such as angioplasties or bypasses.
Peter Lewis and his research group at WID study how mutations in DNA-organizing histone proteins lead to cancer development.
Much remains mysterious in the realm of machine learning. The next generation of machine learning algorithms is expected to not only bolster national defense capabilities, but also benefit civilians.
A new paper in Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews describes how the steps of virus reproduction contribute to timing and productivity of cell infection.
Laurent Lessard is working to improve the algorithms and computer software that keep the modern world running smoothly.
Karen Schloss and Laurent Lessard are working on a method for matching colors to people’s expectations to send the right message — starting with the best colors for waste and recycling bins.
WID researcher Shaoqin Sarah Gong is working to more safely deliver a variety of drugs to treat cancer, heart disease and even blindness.
Newly characterized roles for plant histone deacetylases have implications for growth and development. The Zhong Lab explores the influence of the enzymes in both transcription and translation.
WID researchers are engaging in fundamental mathematical and statistical research to support the development, testing, and fine-tuning of tools for the future, finding new ways to make sense of the mountains of data that are available in the 21st century and bringing into view important applications on the horizon.