A report today (June 27) in PLOS Pathogens shows how inhaled fungal spores exit the lung and trigger a fatal infection in mice. The study solves a mystery of mycology: Why are spores of a certain fungal strain deadly while the yeast form of that same fungus is harmless? Study leader Christina Hull, professor of …

A survey of the world’s top universities placed the University of Wisconsin–Madison as the seventh-greatest source of U.S. patents. The ranking, by the National Academy of Inventors and Intellectual Property Owners Association, attests to UW–Madison’s continued success in the granting of “utility” patents for inventions in a broad range of fields, says Norman Drinkwater, interim …

Seventeen projects, ranging from topics such as electrical stimulation for advanced wound healing to establishing a Radio Astronomy Data Science Center at UW–Madison, and expanding the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS) into the next decade, have been chosen for Round 5 of the UW2020: WARF Discovery Initiative. These projects, with an average award amount of $385,802, …

Thirty-two members of the University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty have been awarded 2019-20 faculty fellowships, including three Biotechnology Training Program (BTP) Mentors. The awardees span the four divisions — arts and humanities, physical sciences, social sciences and biological sciences — on campus. “Our faculty are a key component of what makes UW–Madison a world research institute …

To Bill Murphy and the other leaders of the Forward BIO Initiative, Wisconsin possesses all the elements to become a hub of biomanufacturing in the United States, the Midwest’s version of Boston or San Francisco in this rapidly expanding industry. “Our established, statewide excellence in research, technology development and workforce development make Wisconsin a powerhouse,” says Murphy, the …

To learn about industrial biotechnology’s role in the cheese and dairy industry, Ph.D. trainees in the UW–Madison Biotechnology Training Program (BTP) recently traveled to Cedar Grove Cheese located in Plain, Wisc. At the cheese factory BTP trainees learned how cheese is made and sat down for a conversation with owner Bob Wills to discuss how …

Congratulations to two Biotechnology Training Program (BTP) trainees who received 2019 Graduate Research Fellowships from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Katherine Bultman from the Microbiology Doctoral Training Program under BTP mentor Mark Mandel Katherine Senn from the Integrated Program in Biochemistry (IPiB) under BTP mentor Heidi Dvinge The Graduate Research Fellowship Program recognizes and supports …

One way to treat the most common type of kidney cancer is to use anti-angiogenic drugs to cut off the blood supply to the tumors, but patients respond differently to the drugs, and choosing the wrong one can make the cancer grow faster. A new UW Carbone Cancer Center study, published online this week in EBioMedicine, has developed …

Stroke treatment has come a long way in the past decade: patients, hurried by the slogan “time is brain,” are visiting stroke centers for injections of clot-busting drugs to prevent brain damage. But that progress only concerns ischemic strokes, which occur when a clot interferes with blood flow. Unfortunately, there is no proven treatment for …

On more occasions than Naomi Chesler would prefer, she’s heard academic colleagues respond to discussions about diversity and inclusion with a familiar refrain. “I’ll have to ask our [insert underrepresented minority label] faculty member about that.” Chesler, a Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of biomedical engineering and Biotechnology Training Program (BTP) mentor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, would like to …