“Gut bacteria get to use a lot of our food before we do,” says Federico Rey, a professor of bacteriology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Then we get their leftovers — or their waste. The problem, says Rey, is that if our microbiome overindulges, we might not have access to the nutrients we need. That’s the …

Tim Donohue, director of the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) and UW Foundation Chairman Fetzer-Bascom Professor in bacteriology, will serve as the new interim director of the Wisconsin Energy Institute (WEI). WEI is the collaborative home of energy research and education at the University of Wisconsin–Madison as well as the administrative home of cross-campus …

Madison, Wisconsin, may have become ground zero in the war against one of the deadliest cancers on the planet. Local biotech company Exact Sciences made headlines in 2014 when it received FDA approval for a potentially transformative screening test for colorectal cancer. The noninvasive stool-based test, called Cologuard, just may be the best of its …

Proteins are the hammers and tongs of life, with fundamental roles in most of what happens in biology. But biologists still don’t know what thousands of proteins do, and how their presence or absence affects the cell. The intellectual black hole extends to mitochondria, the cells’ energy machines, which falter in more than 150 diseases, …

Four engineers of twelve total promising young members of the UW–Madison faculty have been honored with Romnes Faculty Fellowships. Two of these faculty members, Bill Murphy and Kristyn Masters, are trainers in the Biotechnology Training Program. Romnes awards recognize exceptional faculty members who have earned tenure within the last six years. Selected by a Graduate School committee, …