Researchers Design New Strategy for Gene Therapy Development
A promising platform developed by the Saha Lab at WID advances the CRISPR genome editing field and could lead to effective treatments for many diseases.
Featured Science
Stories about discoveries, advancements, and forward-thinking ideas from WID’s research areas, hubs, and key collaborators.
New Effective and Safe Antifungal Isolated from Sea Squirt Microbiome
By combing the ocean for antimicrobials, scientists at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have discovered a new antifungal compound that efficiently targets multi-drug-resistant strains of deadly fungi without toxic side effects in mice. WID postdoc Marc Chevrette is part of the team that published the finding in Science.
UW Researchers Devise Approach to Treat Rare, Incurable Form of Blindness
WID’s Kris Saha was among UW–Madison researchers who have published a proof-of-concept method to correct an inherited form of macular degeneration that causes blindness, and that is currently untreatable.
New Tool for Assessing Heart Muscle Cells Helps Unlock Their Potential
A team of UW-Madison researchers led by Discovery Fellow Wendy Crone has created a powerful tool to help assess what experimental factors help to produce stem cell-generated cardiomyocytes that behave like adult heart cells.
Versatile Nanoparticle Offers Targeted Transportation to Cells
University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers led by WID’s Shaoqin “Sarah” Gong have developed a nanoparticle that could safely carry a variety of payloads into targeted cells, giving researchers a versatile, nonviral option for delivering drugs, gene-editing tools, DNA and more.
Research on Viral Junk, Quicker Drug Testing Could Help Outflank Coronaviruses
John Yin is working to find out whether “junk” particles produced by mouse viruses exist in human coronaviruses, and whether they may be the key to understanding how the viruses spread and interact with host cells.
How a UW-Madison Engineer Could Help Beat a Virus at its Own Game
WID’s John Yin, who uses experimental and computational methods to understand how viruses spread, is working on several projects that could have a direct bearing on COVID-19.
Power Tools: New Math Model Optimizes Energy
Discovery Fellow Jim Luedtke, a professor of industrial and systems engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, specializes in stochastic and integer optimization, a natural fit for power systems.
New Tool Predicts Three-Dimensional Organization of Human Chromosomes
WID researchers have developed a computational tool that can accurately predict the three-dimensional interactions between regions of human chromosomes.
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.
Deep in the Weeds
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.
Tiny Capsules Packed with Gene-Editing Tools Offer Alternative to Viral Delivery of Gene Therapy
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.
Lessons of Conventional Imaging Let Scientists See Around Corners
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.
Uncovering a Connection Between Regulators and Genes During Early Neurodevelopment
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.
New Technique Enables Versatile 3D Control Over Stem Cell-Derived Organoids
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.
Generating Stem Cells: a Path to Greater Efficiency
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.
UW–Madison Researchers Earn Army Research Office Grant to Study Microbial Communication
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.
Revolutionary Engineered Blood Vessels Behave Like the Real Thing
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.
THOR Wrangles Complex Microbiomes into a Model for Improving Them
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.
Could Yesterday’s Earth Contain Clues for Making Tomorrow’s Medicines?
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.
New Technology for Controlling Neural Tissue Manufacturing
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.
Fast Evolution Unlocks Forbidden Communities
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.
Using Data Science to Find the Next El Nino
A new approach to climate data analysis hopes to improve regional forecasts.
Scientists Discovered How PCK1 Gene Is Involved In Diabetes and Metastasis in Some Types of Cancer
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.
Combining On and Off Switches, One Protein Can Control Flowering in Plants
With Wisconsin’s short growing seasons, reducing a plant’s life cycle and completing the season earlier “could be very important for many crops.”