The Latest

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.

  • A black back ground photo with varying sizes of red circles.

How Simple Bubbles May Hold Clues to Life’s Beginnings

One of humanity’s most enduring questions is also one of its biggest: how did life begin? Long before DNA, genes, or cells as we know them existed, how did life emerge from non-living chemical systems?  One possible explanation  lies in simple chemistry, which has the capacity to evolve and become more complex.  In a new study at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery (WID), Tymofii Sokolskyi, a PhD candidate in Astrobiology & Evolution working in the David Baum Lab and the Department of Botany, takes a fresh look at that question.

  • Steve Wright receives Vilas Professorship Award with Provost John Zumbrunnen left) and former chancellor Jennifer Mnookin (right).

Stephen Wright honored with Vilas Research Professorship

Created for the advancement of learning and supported by the estate of professor, U.S. senator and UW Regent William F. Vilas (1840-1908), Vilas Research Professorships are granted to UW–Madison faculty with proven research ability and unusual qualifications and promise.

  • Michael Ferris speaks to guests at the Discovery Building including Eric Wilcots.

Michael Ferris–Looking Back

Ferris has shared his expertise to benefit the public in significant ways–including working with policymakers to help distribute the first Covid vaccines fairly and efficiently in the state of Wisconsin. He consults with industries and companies such as Exact Sciences, energy modeling, agriculture, trucking, and manufacturing, and will continue to do so after retirement, when he will remain a WID emeritus.