Keep the human brain healthy Learn more

As the average human life span increases, it is essential to ensure a high quality of life by maintaining brain and mind health. To match the advances in prolonging life, WID researchers seek a fundamental understanding of how the human brain and mind function through -omic profiling, tissue engineering, and predictions about health and disease using electronic health records. This understanding may lead to gene editing methods to correct neural problems, drugs to treat currently untreatable diseases, and methods to protect, repair, or regenerate neural tissue. Healthy brains mean better lives. Much of WID's research contributes to the Healthy Brain Grand Challenge.
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New Effective and Safe Antifungal Isolated from Sea Squirt Microbiome Featured Science 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. Continue Reading Researchers Look to Control Organ Function Through New Computational Model WID News A cross-institutional team including WID's John Yin is creating a computational model to guide the development of bladder therapeutics. Continue Reading Data Science Research Bazaar Seeks Proposals WID News The Bazaar, happening throughout February, 2021, has the theme Data Science for the Social Good. Continue Reading UW–Madison to Continue Fundamental Data Science Research with Phase II Award from NSF WID News The Wisconsin Institute for Discovery is home to the Institute for the Foundations of Data Science, which has received Phase II funding from the National Science Foundation. Continue Reading UW Researchers Devise Approach to Treat Rare, Incurable Form of Blindness Featured Science 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. Continue Reading With NASA Award, PhD Student Seeks Answers to LIfe's Biggest Questions Wisconsin Stories Lena Vincent is a graduate student in David Baum's lab at WID. She studies the origin of life by searching for life-like behaviors in systems of molecules. Continue Reading

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