WID Director Jo Handelsman Elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Her election—alongside 200 other newly-elected members—recognizes her contributions to science.
WID News
Top headlines, campus news, and announcements featuring the work and opinions of the WID community.
Seminar on Astrobiology Aims to Inspire a Look into the Bounds of Life
A new group centered at WID hopes to coordinate the dozens of labs that are addressing some aspect of astrobiology and inspire others to join the work. A public lecture series this spring is part of the effort.
WID Biologist Takes Top Prize in Bioethics Cartoon Contest
Rush Dhillon, a comparative biologist working with the John Denu Lab at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, took the top prize in a contest that invites participants to make a cartoon on any ethical issue arising in or from biomedical research.
WID Seeks Machine Learning and “Fluxomics” Hires
WID seeks to add to its roster of excellent faculty with two new hires in emerging cutting-edge fields.
Wisconsin Public Television and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Announce the Timothy William Trout Education Innovation Lab
Gift of $2.1 million from Dr. Monroe and Sandra Trout creates partnership among Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, Morgridge Institute for Research, UW-Madison School of Education, and Wisconsin Public Television
Tour WID’s New ‘Hubs’ Designed to Spur Campus Collaborations Dec. 12
The Wisconsin Institute for Discovery will launch a suite of hubs designed to bring together researchers from across campus and provide access to specialized tools and resources.
Randolph Ashton Named SCRMC Associate Director
WID’s Randolph Ashton, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, is the new associate director for UW–Madison’s Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center.
Wisconsin State Journal: At UW-Madison, 500 Scientists Studying Stem Cells 20 Years After Discovery
The Wisconsin State Journal, as part of its feature highlighting stem cell research at UW 20 years after James Thomson’s discovery, highlights WID researchers Randolph Ashton and Kris Saha.
Cap Times Q&A: Kevin Ponto Wants to Use Virtual Reality to Solve Real-world Problems
For WID’s Kevin Ponto, virtual reality is more than a way of playing video games or simulating roller coaster rides. He thinks VR can be a tool for solving real-world problems.
UW–Madison Researchers Developing Methods to Edit Genes in Brain Cells
A second WID-led team joins NIH’s Somatic Cell Genome Editing Consortium with a grant to study new methods of delivering the CRISPR/Cas9 system to the brain.
Scientists Seek to Improve Quality Control for Genome Editing Therapies in the Eye
UW researchers led by WID’s Kris Saha join the National Institutes of Health’s Somatic Cell Genome Editing Consortium with a major collaborative award.
WSJ: Weather Forecasts Should Get Over the Rainbow
Professor Karen Schloss of WID’s Visual Reasoning Lab tells the Wall Street Journal about the pitfalls of the rainbow-colored maps used to communicate during storms like the recent Hurricane Florence.
Students Search for New Antibiotics in Initiative that Brings Real Science to Classrooms
From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: At a recent training event, teachers from Milwaukee Public Schools were joined by a teacher from New York Public Schools, a middle school teacher from Oak Creek, and even a researcher planning to bring the program back to his home university in India.
Data Science Initiative Supports Faculty Research at UW–Madison
Ten highly innovative projects have been chosen to receive University of Wisconsin–Madison Data Science Initiative funding, including two led by Wisconsin Institute for Discovery investigators.
Wisconsin Institute for Discovery to Host Conference Addressing Antimicrobial Resistance Crisis
Tiny Earth’s 2018 symposium will feature experts on the front lines of the antimicrobial resistance crisis.
WID Researchers Looking to the Future with UW2020 Awards
Investigators from WID are among the recipients of the latest round of UW2020 awards.
UW Carbone Scientists Present at Annual Cancer Research Conference
One of the UW Carbone Cancer Center members presenting is WID’s Peter Lewis. His work focuses on how genes are turned on and off during embryonic development, and how misregulation in those genes can lead to some childhood cancers.
Award-Winning WID Faculty & Fellows Hit the Ground Running in 2018
WID’s world-class faculty are regularly recognized with awards and honors from their departments, campus, agencies, and professional associations. In 2018, researchers at WID have already received awards for outstanding research contributions, service, and work in diversity.
WID Researchers Receive Awards to Fund Cancer Research
Mark Klein and Peter Lewis were recognized for their cancer research awards from The Ride, sponsored by the UW Carbone Cancer Center, at a recent Wisconsin Men’s Hockey game.
Kohler Fellows Talk “Facts” on WORT Access Hour
Three members of the Kohler Fellows met and prerecorded a spontaneous and animated discussion of the concept of “facts.” They were biochemist and geneticist Ana Lindahl, English literature student Julie Dauer, and neuroscience-and-public policy student Andrew Merluzzi. The recording took place live in the WORT studios on Wednesday, December 7th.
From WPR: Wisconsin Educators Look To Cultivate A New Generation Of Scientists And Antibiotics
The project Includes Hands-On Lab Work Testing Soil
New Hope for Stopping an Understudied Heart Disease in its Tracks
Biomedical engineering professor and Discovery Fellow Kristyn Masters and colleagues identified the early stages of a process that may eventually cause aortic stenosis, a severe narrowing of the aortic valve that reduces blood flow to the body and weakens the heart.
Wisconsin Teachers Converge on Madison in Search of Antibiotics
Instructors from eight UW System schools and more than a dozen other colleges and universities are taking a week out of their January break to meet in Madison in search of a crucial discovery — antibiotics.
Scientists Struggle with Sexism and Racism: ‘We Think These Bias Studies Don’t Apply to Us’
The Washington Post writes about the harsh realities faced by women and minorities in science presented by WID Director Jo Handelsman at the Society for Neuroscience conference in Washington, D.C.
Randolph Ashton Continues Research into Causes of Lou Gehrig’s Disease
In August 2017, Randolph Ashton received almost $800,000 from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of NIH, to continue a five-year research study of Lou Gehrig’s disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS), after successfully completing its first phase.