Category: BTP News

For Danielle Lohman, her passion for science policy began when she heard a Ph.D. chemist speak at a career conference about the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) fellowship at the State Department in Washington, D.C. Lohman, recently a postdoctoral fellow in Dave Pagliarini’s lab at the Morgridge Institute for Research, was in her second year of …

As an undergraduate student majoring in physics at Illinois Wesleyan University, William Murphy took exactly one biology course: Biology 101. Two decades later, he’s built a career around creating what he calls “bio-inspired” materials such as tissues for drug modeling and bone regeneration. Murphy, a Biotechnology Training Program (BTP) mentor and the Harvey D. Spangler Professor of biomedical …

A series of projects aimed at advancing the human-health and economic impact of biomanufacturing is already benefiting from a new University of Wisconsin–Madison institute aimed at making the state a Midwestern hub of the ongoing merger of pharmaceuticals, medical devices and cutting-edge tissue engineering. The Forward BIO Institute, announced last month, intends to accelerate UW–Madison’s existing …

When Kaivalya Molugu was considering graduate schools, she knew she was interested in stem cell research, but she had to decide where to apply. The answer soon became clear: the place where it all began. One of the main reasons she chose UW–Madison “is the strong stem cell research center here,” says Molugu, a biophysics …

A compound that has scientists seeing red may hold the key to engineering yeasts that produce better biofuels. A red pigment called pulcherrimin, naturally produced by several strains of wild yeasts, is synthesized in part through the same biochemical pathway that researchers hope to use to improve production of isobutanol, a promising biofuel alternative to …

A $750,000 grant from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. announced Sept. 6 establishes the Forward BIO Initiative, a collaborative effort to make Wisconsin a recognized center of excellence for biomanufacturing. The new initiative “leverages one of our key long-term strengths at UW, which is working at the crossroads where multiple disciplines connect,” UW–Madison Chancellor Rebecca …

When a stimulus descends upon a cell, it sets off a flurry of activity. Sensors on the surface take in information and relay it inside to other proteins, which perform computations and transmit their findings. The cell makes a decision and responds to the stimulus. Megan McClean wants to figure out how it all works—and then …

In the treatment of cancer, chemotherapy is a cleaver, not a scalpel. By attacking rapidly dividing cells, chemotherapy effectively fights tumors, but it also ravages healthy cells in the gut, bone marrow, the scalp and other organs, leading to severe side effects. These toxic chemicals save lives, but at a great cost to patient well-being. …

Heart disease is the number one killer in the United States, and high levels of fats such as triglycerides or cholesterol in the blood are cited as just one of several risk factors. Millions of lipid panels — blood tests that look at cholesterol and triglyceride levels — are performed in clinics each year. Two …

Mike Sussman, longtime director of the UW–Madison Biotechnology Center and BTP trainer, has announced that he is stepping down from that position to serve as director of the Genome Center of Wisconsin, located within the Biotechnology Center. “With DNA analysis now permeating all aspects of research, our economy and our lives, aggressive attention to changes in the technology …