The world of the super-small — of proteins, ribosomes, bacteria, viruses, and other biomolecules — is perpetually abuzz inside of us. A powerful structural biology technique called cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) gives scientists a new window into the machinery of life. Here’s a look at how the technology works. Learn more
The world of the super-small — of proteins, ribosomes, bacteria, viruses, and other biomolecules — is perpetually abuzz inside of us. A powerful structural biology technique called cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) gives scientists a new window into the machinery of life. Here’s a look at how the technology works.
Danielle Desa adapted optical imaging techniques she learned with the Melissa Skala Lab to assess the ideal conditions to successfully grow cardiac cells in unique biosynthetic hydrogels.
Morgridge Institute co-founders John and Tashia Morgridge received a distinguished service award from the Wisconsin Alumni Association for their visionary and unprecedented giving to UW-Madison and affiliates.
The 18th annual Morgridge Science Summer Camp took place in July 2024, welcoming 75 students from rural Wisconsin high schools for a week-long immersion into the world of science and a glimpse of college life.
Kasia Wiech, a graduate student in biomedical engineering, is on a mission to bring science out of the lab and into public spaces to highlight the impact of science in our everyday lives.
The BINA 2024 Community Congress will meet on September 23-27, 2024 on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus.
Morgridge researchers harness the power of optical metabolic imaging to study how the parasite Toxoplasma changes host cell metabolism over the course of infection.
The Morgridge Science Communication Incubator Lab and the UW–Madison Life Sciences Communication Department welcome two new Civic Science Fellows supported by the Rita Allen Foundation.
Viruses are responsible for nearly one in every five cases of human cancer. New Morgridge Investigator Megan Spurgeon is on the front lines of understanding the inner workings of this public health threat.
Bryce Johnson, a graduate student in the Gitter Lab at Morgridge, published an opinion piece in Undark commenting on open-source conflicts with Google DeepMind’s AI software AlphaFold 3.
he seminar is an annual five-day journey through Wisconsin that offers faculty and staff the opportunity to learn firsthand about the social and cultural contexts that shape the lives of many of our Wisconsin students, and to see what the Wisconsin Idea looks like when it is rooted in local communities and shaped by local priorities.
In the public affairs news site The Conversation, a trio of engineers (including the Morgridge Institute’s Melissa Skala) describe their research alliance to better understand the biomechanics of pregnancy — and create a better warning system for preterm birth risk.
Morgridge scientists have discovered a surprising new way that the model organism planaria initiates sexual development.
The Randy Bartels Lab demonstrates for the first time the use of third harmonic generation holographic microscopy to collect measurements of light intensity and phase information within biological samples.
The Skala Lab used quantitative imaging to observe collagen changes in melanoma tumors in mice, offering potential to improve immunotherapy treatments.
During a special event, the Skala Lab welcomed a group of enthusiastic, science-curious donors and supporters to to take a closer look at the beautiful world of microscopy and biomedical imaging.
Congratulations to our 2024 graduating students and research staff moving on into their next chapters.
Roma Broadberry, a biophysics graduate researcher in the Tim Grant Lab, is helping to illuminate the intricacy of viral replication using cryo-EM.
The Morgridge Institute is a partner with the pioneering Civic Science Fellows program — designed to catalyze progress toward a future where all people can shape science to expand its benefits and horizons.
James Dahlberg, Morgridge trustee and former interim chief executive officer, is among three outstanding innovators to receive 2024 Chancellor’s Entrepreneurial Achievement Awards.
Morgridge Institute CEO Brad Schwartz and Morgridge Visiting Scientist James Keck are among eight University of Wisconsin–Madison scholars who have been elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society.
From cow eye dissections to shipwrecks on the Great Lakes, families experienced hands-on activities at the Science Expeditions Discovery Expo.
Dietram Scheufele recently received awards from UW–Madison and the AAPSS in recognition of his work on public engagement with science and technology.
Kenneth Poss explores the mysteries of how some species can regenerate virtually any damaged tissue in their body — and what that could mean for repairing damaged human hearts.
From ‘Jurassic Park’ to snake venom to parasitic flatworms, Andrés Tibabuzo is motivated by the science that fascinates him.
By identifying and decoding these autofluorescence signatures, the researchers have developed a tool that can aid in studying adult neurological diseases and aging, but potentially also expand beyond neuroscience.
Does AI have a future in biomedical research? What challenges might we face? Experts from the Morgridge Institute addressed these questions during a Fearless Science Speaker Series lecture on March 21, 2024.
Students explored the basics of fluid mechanics at a recent field trip to the Discovery Building.
Marcela Tabima has focused her fascination with human biology on two major research efforts in the Discovery Building — engineering synthetic arteries for surgery and finding new ways to treat inherited retinal diseases.
Researchers illustrated that size doesn’t matter when they assembled sequences for two new reference genomes — one from the world’s largest mammal and one of the smallest.
The Morgridge Science Communication Incubator Lab questions why scientists may or may not be willing to pursue public engagement opportunities.
With support from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), Morgridge investigator Randy Bartels will be on a quest to break the “ballistic barrier” in biomedical imaging to peer more deeply into living tissue.
Katie Overmyer collaborates with metabolism researchers to push the boundaries of mass spectrometry technology and uncover answers to important biological questions.
A tool called Serial KinderMiner (SKiM) can quickly search through more than 35 million papers in the PubMed database to make connections and uncover potentially hidden associations between a set of terms.
Nuruddin Unchwaniwala, a postdoctoral alumnus of the Ahlquist Lab, joined the biotech industry to help fight Hepatitis B infection, a leading cause of liver cancer.
“You can always learn more”: An unquenchable thirst for discovery guides Joe Li’s pursuit of cutting-edge light-sheet microscopy.
A project spearheaded by scientist Rodrigo Dutra Nunes in the Drummond-Barbosa Lab found that a high-sugar diet, and not obesity, causes decreased fertility in fruit flies.
Morgridge biomedical imaging investigator Dr. Melissa Skala and University of Wisconsin–Madison medical oncologist Dr. Mark Burkard discuss the future of cancer care in the latest Fearless Science Speaker Series webinar.
Morgridge investigator Juan Caicedo is developing an AI-driven image processing platform called “universal morphology,” which has the potential to turbocharge research into cell biology and drug discovery.
Odette Herrand is drawn to the inherent creativity involved in answering complex scientific questions, which they use to study fertility in the fruit fly.
Mike Westphall, a distinguished scientist in the Josh Coon Lab, will retire this month after a legacy of developing cool tools in the name of scientific discovery.
Tony Gitter, a Morgridge investigator in virology and research computing and an associate professor of biostatistics and medical informatics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, has been named the Jeanne M. Rowe Chair in Virology.
During a special event, the Morgridge Institute welcomed a group of enthusiastic, science-curious donors and supporters into the lab to explore “fearless science” first-hand.
Morgridge is home to a National Science Foundation initiative to make big data generated by federal research findable, accessible and reusable for all.
Peter Ducos leans on his military training to solve complex problems and collaborate with other scientists by exploring molecular structures in exquisite detail.
BioImaging North America, a project housed at the Morgridge Institute, is helping a community of more than 1,200 scientists take their imaging research and technology to new heights.
We’ve collected some of our favorite moments from the 2023 Wisconsin Science Festival, which boasted a full week of over 300 events statewide.
The journal Nature profiled a novel technology developed in the Josh Coon Lab to link two technologies — mass spectrometry and cryo-EM — to better image complex protein structures.
Kim Huggler believes science is fundamentally about creativity, and leverages an innovative cell culture media to reveal biological processes that conventional techniques cannot.
Take the time to unleash your curiosity and celebrate discovery at the Wisconsin Science Festival, held October 16-22, with more than 300 events throughout the state.
Ed Evans sees every challenge as an opportunity to grow, and uses his passion for problem-solving to develop new imaging tools that will help other scientists.
Morgridge Postdoctoral Fellow Liz Haynes received a Simons Foundation Transition to Independence Award to support her career studying the aging brain using a zebrafish model.
The increasing impacts of climate change include the effect on fertility as a factor that could decide an organism’s survival or extinction. New research reveals how chronic exposure to warm temperatures affects sperm development in the model organism, Drosophila.
Morgridge Postdoc Amani Gillette discusses her fascinating transition from bench science to entrepreneurship as she steers a new company devoted to improving personalized cancer therapies.
A Morgridge-funded research project on the impact of visual art as a science communication tool on social media received an award at the 2023 AEJMC conference.
Students and educators from rural high schools across Wisconsin spent a week on campus to experience science firsthand at the 17th annual Summer Science Camp.
Afterschool Expeditions is an outreach program brings the wonders of science to community centers across the city — it’s about fun and exploration.
New Assistant Outreach Coordinator Felipe Rosas Gomez brings his diverse perspective and passion for education and community engagement to Morgridge.
When cells infected with HIV make contact with uninfected cells, a new study reveals how that connection unleashes a hornet’s nest of activity that helps drive transmission.
A group of 7th grade students from the Madison Metropolitan School District explored a variety of STEM activities and developed their own science identities at summer camp.
Morgridge scientists have developed new imaging and engineering tools to better understand the mechanical triggers of preterm birth — a health challenge that affects more than one in 10 pregnancies nationally.
GROW Magazine, a research publication for the UW–Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, highlighted the research of Morgridge Investigator Paul Ahlquist on how viruses replicate their genomes within cells.
The Summer Science Camps kick off July 10 on campus, inviting more than 50 Wisconsin high school students and 10 teachers for an immersive week of hands-on science, exploration, laughter, and learning.
Genome replication in bacteria frequently breaks down. Scientists at UW–Madison and Morgridge used Cryo-EM to precisely detail how bacterial proteins act like emergency first responders, repairing broken DNA on the fly.
Morgridge Investigator Kevin Eliceiri is one of 18 UW–Madison professors to be honored this summer with an H.I. Romnes Fellowship from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF).
Middle schoolers explored material science and plant science at a recent field trip to the Discovery Building.
Melissa Skala’s technology harnesses the natural light produced by cells in order to track response to cancer drug treatment.
Two new Morgridge investigators — Juan Caicedo and Randy Bartels — are bringing exciting approaches to push the frontiers of biomedical imaging.
New Morgridge Investigator Randy Bartels develops light microscopy and laser technology to illuminate biology we can’t currently see — such as ultra-deep imaging of tissues and large regions of cells.
Meet new Morgridge biomedical imaging Investigator Juan Caicedo, who specializes in machine learning to decode complex patterns in human biology.
While preparing to launch her career as an independent investigator, Gina Gallego-Lopez explores the relationships between single-celled parasites and their hosts by linking multiple areas of research.
The Research Ethics Consultations Service (RECS), launched in 2014 by Morgridge Ethics Investigator Pilar Ossorio, has taken on more than 60 inquiries from UW–Madison researchers on bioethical concerns large and small.
The Morgridge Institute echoes campus and community leaders in condemning recent hate speech on campus.
Morgridge Institute Trustee Winslow Sargeant, an international leader in venture investment and small business development, received UW–Madison’s highest honor for alumni achievement in entrepreneurship.
A study on metabolic reprogramming in cancer and immune cells is helping scientists better understand the cell interactions surrounding cancer progression — a key to developing more effective and personalized treatments.
Five prizes were awarded in the sixth annual Morgridge Institute for Research Ethics Cartooning Competition, which invites participants to make a cartoon on any ethical issue related to biomedical research.
A UW 2020 project led by Anthony Gitter has led to a powerful new campus resource for GPU-based computing — the new go-to strategy for complex machine learning research.
Fifth graders from Shorewood Hill Elementary, a school in the Madison Metropolitan School District, attended a field trip to the Discovery Building this month.
The Josh Coon Lab developed a meta-scale approach to quantifying the human proteome and the massive number of protein variants produced by the human body. Proteomics is a cornerstone of biology and a precursor to understanding how protein dysfunction contributes to disease.
Eighteen cartoons have been selected as finalists in the 2023 Ethics Cartooning Competition, an annual contest sponsored by the Morgridge Institute.
Scientists use stem cells to develop CAR macrophages that can infiltrate and kill tumor cells, showing promise for cancer immunotherapy treatments.
Many animals have the ability to regrow limbs and other body parts after injury. A Wall Street Journal photo essay explores scientific inquiries into these amazing creatures — including the work of Melanie Issigonis in the Phil Newmark Lab at Morgridge.
Morgridge virologists have outlined in atomic detail the intricate RNA replication machines that coronaviruses create inside infected cells, giving rise to potential new strategies to fight disease.
Every cell has about 20,000 proteins, several hundred metabolites, and couple of thousand lipids. When those things get perturbed, bad things can happen. But measuring those changes may offer essential clues for fighting cancer.
Daniela Drummond-Barbosa joined the UW–Madison faculty in September 2022 as a professor in the Department of Genetics.
Wisconsin is now an established national leader in cryo-electron microscopy, or cryo-EM, thanks to a decade-long strategic push from the UW–Madison biochemistry department and the Morgridge Institute.
HTCondor is gaining adherents across UW because scientists are learning that it is more than someone asking, “What technology do you need?” Research computing is a collaboration, and the people HTC brings to the equation are more important than the technology.
Common rodent models aren’t ideal for studying certain diseases, but the Nile rat might offer a solution. A high-quality reference genome for the species will aid studies on type 2 diabetes and circadian rhythm disruption.
At a meeting of the Wisconsin Tech Council, Morgridge scientists described the renaissance taking place in metabolism research, which is revealing newfound connections to disease and entirely new roads to treatment and prevention.
Morgridge investigator Kevin Eliceiri is one of 16 UW–Madison researchers to make the 2022 list of “Highly Cited Researchers,” compiled annually by the Office of Scientific Information.
Melissa Skala, an investigator in biomedical imaging and professor of biomedical engineering, has been named the inaugural Carol Skornicka Chair at the institute.
The Morgridge Metabolism Initiative helps hundreds of campus scientists learn from each other and push the boundaries of research that is central to human health questions such as aging, diabetes and cancer.
For the first time, researchers have assembled a high-quality reference genome for the Nile rat, a promising model organism for diabetes research.
Classrooms from Wisconsin and beyond explore Morgridge science through new Meet the Lab resources from PBS Wisconsin.
CZI partnered with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to launch the Science Diversity Leadership program, a funding opportunity that aims to recognize and further the leadership of excellent biomedical researchers who — through their outreach, mentoring, teaching, and leadership — have a record of promoting diversity, equity and inclusion in their scientific fields.
We’ve collected some of our favorite moments from the 2022 Wisconsin Science Festival, which boasted a full week of over 300 events statewide.
Carl Gulbrandsen was a visionary leader whose service to Wisconsin innovation left a lasting impact at Morgridge, WARF, and UW–Madison.
The Morgridge Institute and UW–Madison Life Sciences Communication will join forces to investigate new ways to best communicate complex scientific topics to society.
Bolstered by a $4.3 million investment from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, UW–Madison’s research computing hardware is getting a significant upgrade—giving researchers the sustained shared infrastructure they need to help them push the bounds of science with support from the Morgridge Institute.
At the 2022 Emerging Leaders Symposium, a group of professionals and panelists shared ideas about shaping the future of academia and the medical sciences through diverse perspectives and nurturing young talent.
Danielle Desa seeks to break ground in imaging design and stem cell research with support from the new Melita F. Grunow Postdoctoral Fellowship. She is mentored by Morgridge Investigator Melissa Skala and Biomedical Engineering Professor William Murphy.
A team of scientists including graduate student Julia Gambardella, Morgridge scientist
John Maufort, and UW–Madison Professor Marina Emborg, were winners in the UW–
Madison 2022 Cool Science Image Contest.
The COVID-19 pandemic and our tech-driven world have highlighted the need for accessibility of research and efficiency of science publishing. Manubot is one tool that could change the game.
From glass blowing to space exploration, the Wisconsin Science Festival, held October 10-16, will feature over 300 in-person and virtual events throughout the state.
Scientific training is much more than learning experimental methods or interpreting data. Trainees must practice management, leadership, collaboration, and communication skills to be successful and the Morgridge Institute is committed to fostering growth of “whole scientists” who are prepared to lead.
A new stem cell study describes genetic factors that support the development of germ cells and yolk cells in the reproductive organs of planarian flatworms.
One of the first frontiers of CRISPR gene editing is targeting diseases related to the eye. A diverse Morgridge and UW–Madison team is working to make future applications precise, safe and reproducible.
This past July, the OSG User School 2022 welcomed students from across the globe to learn how to use high-throughput computing in their scientific research.
After two years of virtual-only events at the Discovery Building, students and teachers from rural Wisconsin high schools returned in-person for the 16th annual Summer Science Camp.
Morgridge investigator Kevin Eliceiri was recently named an Open Hardware Trailblazer Fellow by the Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA) for his work in imaging innovation.
After two years of virtual-only programming, the Morgridge Institute and the UW–Madison campus will once again open their doors to high school students and teachers in-person for the Summer Science Camp, along with continued online workshop sessions throughout the summer.
Former Morgridge Postdoctoral Fellow Finn Kuusisto was awarded for his work developing information technology to improve virtual reality applications that could one day be applied to biomedical devices.
Daniela Drummond-Barbosa, the Morgridge Institute’s newest investigator, uses the model organism Drosophila to better understand the genetic drivers of stem cell disorders, obesity, infertility and a variety of diseases associated with metabolism.
In this Wisconsin Examiner report, Morgridge Bioethicist in Residence Pilar Ossorio addresses the dangerous notion of “whatever the patient wants, the patient gets” when it comes to the rash of unproven and disproven treatments related to COVID.
Postdoctoral researcher Parul Johri uses OSG services, the HTCondor Software Suite, and the population genetics simulation program SLiM to investigate historical patterns of genetic variation.
In new findings in Nature, a team at the Morgridge Institute for Research and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis analyzed dozens of ‘orphan’ mitochondrial proteins and suggested functions for many of them — an important step to finding better ways to diagnose and treat poorly understood human conditions.
Morgridge Investigator Jing Fan and her lab recently published a study in the journal Nature Metabolism that takes a closer look at the unique metabolic activity that powers neutrophils as the first responders in innate immunity.
Congratulations to our 2022 graduating students and research staff moving on into their next chapters. A few of them shared their experiences at Morgridge and their plans for the future.
Miron Livny, Morgridge investigator and UW–Madison computer scientist, describes his Center for High Throughput Computing as a service provider for scientists with big to-do lists. That includes people searching for super-massive black holes.
The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) was able to create a black hole model thanks to the contribution of Morgridge investigator and UW–Madison computer scientist Miron Livny.
The stunning new image of a supermassive black hole in the center of the Milky Way was created by eight telescopes, 300 international astronomers and more than 5 million computational tasks. The Wisconsin-based Open Science Pool helped make sense of it all.
In new research in Nature Communications, the Joshua Coon Lab describes a game-changing advance that unites the power of mass spectrometry with the potential of electron microscopy (EM) — a finding that could transform biotechnology.
Families returned to Saturday Science at the Discovery Building for the first time since the start of the pandemic.
After years of building tools for bioinformatics research, Morgridge Postdoctoral Fellow Matt Bernstein takes his skills to industrial cancer research.
Morgridge ethics researcher Yao Zhou received the Thomas Edison Innovation Fellowship to study the role of IP rights in advancing biomedical technologies.
Morgridge Institute Investigator Melissa Skala heralded the importance of the federal investment in scientific research during the annual “UW Day” on April 6 in Washington, D.C.
Five prizes were awarded in the fifth annual Morgridge Institute for Research Ethics Cartooning Competition, which invites participants to make a cartoon on any ethical issue related to biomedical research.
Unlike virtually all animals, the flatworm planaria has the ability to regenerate its germ cells from anywhere in the body. The Morgridge Newmark Lab is finding the molecular footprint of this process for the first time.
For researchers looking to extract useful and relevant data from PubMed — a public database of more than 30 million biomedical research papers — Morgridge scientists have developed a simple and enticing shortcut, called KinderMiner.
Morgridge Postdoctoral Fellow Gina Gallego-Lopez leads research to better understand the relationship between the Cryptosporidium parasite and host, and ultimately identifying new therapeutic treatments.
Morgridge Investigators Jason Cantor, Kevin Eliceiri, and Melissa Skala received award funding to advance projects in metabolism and biomedical imaging.
James Thomson, the Morgridge Institute and UW–Madison scientist who first isolated and grew human embryonic stem cells, inspiring a generation of researchers, and igniting a furious ethical debate that he would later help resolve, plans to retire after more than three decades of work in Wisconsin.
James Thomson helped the scientific world turn its attention to the remarkable stem cells that give rise to all of the building blocks of life. After more than 30 years with UW–Madison and 15 years with the Morgridge Institute, Thomson has announced plans to retire in July 2022.
Dan Murphy, outreach and lab manager at Morgridge, shares advice about working in science education and programming with his alma mater, Beloit College.
The vision of the Digital Livestock Lab is to create state-of-the-art computer vision systems and the largest public database for livestock.
What is the future outlook of the COVID-19 pandemic? Experts discussed where we are and the path forward on February 17, 2022 in a Fearless Science Speaker Series webinar.
Morgridge Investigator Kevin Eliceiri and collaborators at the University of Minnesota will develop and test an integrated toolkit of imaging and data analysis technologies for immunotherapies, funded by the National Cancer Institute.
Sixteen cartoons have been selected as finalists in the 2022 Ethics Cartooning Competition, an annual contest sponsored by the Morgridge Institute.
SHINE, a spinoff company that spent its formative years at Morgridge, is helping usher in the fusion energy age with several technologies, including a safe way to create life-saving medical isotopes.
Morgridge investigator Melissa Skala has landed a grant from the National Eye Institute to develop a new imaging method that could allow for earlier disease detection, monitoring and treatment evaluation for retinal diseases.
After years of sharpening her knowledge of mass spectrometry in the Josh Coon Lab, chemistry PhD alumna Anji Trujillo landed her dream job of working on the front lines of drug development at Pfizer in St. Louis.
Morgridge Investigator Anthony Gitter and his team are tackling big problems (and big datasets) with machine learning. A new study demonstrates how these tools can be used to predict new protein sequences that could improve protein function.
Using tiny specks of dental plaque, scientists at the Morgridge Institute for the first time compiled a sophisticated analysis that opens the door to using the trove of micro-organisms in your mouth as an indicator of other health issues.
An advanced biomedical imaging technique reveals how cancer cells can hijack the metabolic activity of certain non-cancer cells in the pancreas to fuel tumor growth.
A few of our recent Morgridge alumni reflect on how their research experience at the institute prepared them for their scientific careers.
Morgridge biomedical imaging investigator Kevin Eliceiri is one of 17 UW–Madison researchers who made the 2021 Highly Cited Researchers List. Eliceiri has been cited more than 68,000 times in 228 publications and is recognized for his cross-disciplinary influence.
Thomson Lab alumna Shannon Strader returned to her roots at Morgridge to participate in an upcoming outreach feature with PBS Wisconsin Meet the Lab.
A new digital learning resource developed by PBS Wisconsin called “Meet the Lab,” which gives middle school-aged students a glimpse into high-powered research labs and the scientists who run them, highlights the Morgridge Institute virology research team.
Over 18 months into the COVID-19 pandemic, and vaccines are now available for children 5-11. Experts on the front lines of pediatric vaccine development and public health addressed questions during a Fearless Science Speaker Series webinar on November 9, 2021.
Morgridge Investigator Anthony Gitter presented at the annual BioForward Biohealth Summit about ways machine learning is having a major impact on the early phases of drug discovery.
Anthony Gitter, a Morgridge investigator, discussed his lab’s promising new efforts to use AI to create custom-fit chemicals — or as he described it, “a brand new recipe” for treating illnesses.
We’ve collected some of our favorite moments from “Science on the Square” during the 2021 Wisconsin Science Festival.
Elizabeth Haynes recently joined the institute as a Morgridge Postdoctoral Research Fellow who is harnessing microscopy to model the early progression of Alzheimer’s disease in zebrafish. Haynes’s fellowship is a collaboration between the Kevin Eliceiri Lab and Tyler Ulland in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at UW–Madison.
Virtual chemical libraries are capable of producing billions of never-before-synthesized chemical combinations, advancing the quest for beneficial new drugs. Machine learning models are helping find the best candidates.
From “magic” mushrooms to a celebration of the stars, the 11th annual Wisconsin Science Festival, held October 21-24, will feature over 170 virtual and in-person events.
Morgridge Postdoctoral Fellow Ben Sajdak bridges advanced microscopy and neuroscience, while bringing his own scientific path into focus.
In late 2019, a novel coronavirus began spreading across the globe. The pandemic still isn’t over, but it hasn’t stopped scientific progress. We spoke with scientists at the Morgridge Institute for Research and the University of Wisconsin–Madison who shared stories of promise, resilience, and lessons learned to come together, overcome challenges and work for the public good.
A editorial by Kim Kaukl, executive director of the Wisconsin Rural Schools Alliance, referenced the Morgridge Institute’s Rural Summer Science Camp as an ideal example of the benefits of online and hybrid learning opportunities in science education.
Morgridge researchers developed an imaging technique that can predict the efficiency of cardiac muscle cell differentiation from stem cells as a method of quality control for potential regenerative therapies.
Tania Rozario, a 2020 alumna of the Phil Newmark Regenerative Biology Lab at Morgridge, has received a National Institutes of Health Director’s New Innovator Award for high-risk, high-reward research she is pursuing as a University of Georgia professor.
Morgridge Postdoctoral Fellow Matthew Bernstein developed a web tool to explore public RNAseq datasets to facilitate analysis for cancer researchers.
When dangerous COVID viral variants were sweeping the globe, David O’Connor was busy tracking their spread in Wisconsin. His secret weapon? High-throughput computing.
Students across the state connect with astronauts aboard the International Space Station.
Morgridge Postdoctoral Fellow Amritava Das earned prestigious AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowship and landed first-ever placement at the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
A 50-state analysis of laws related to substance use and pregnancy will be a critical first step in helping medical leaders assess the impact of the widespread opioid epidemic.
Postdoctoral researcher Kalpana Raja received the “Women Scientist Award” from the Society for Bioinformatics and Biological Sciences for her scientific merits.
Tim Grant is part of a new project supported by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) that hopes to create a three-dimensional map that aligns molecules in their proper neighborhoods within a cell.
The Summer Science Workshop Series kicks off June 23 with 106 students and 29 educators from 21 schools in the Wisconsin Rural Schools Alliance and seven sites in the Upward Bound program that focuses on underrepresented and first-generation pre-college students.
Ernest ‘Ernie’ Micek was a global trade leader and entrepreneur who brought decades of experience to help the Morgridge Institute by ‘always doing the right thing.’
The impacts of COVID-19 are improving worldwide. But virology experts argue we must stay vigilant to protect public health for a safer, more productive future.
The COVID-19 pandemic is not an isolated event, but one step in an accelerating progression of viral threats. Preventing the next pandemic will take a massive scientific commitment.
Portable Flamingo microscopes have the potential to democratize science by opening up new opportunities to wide ranges of researchers and institutions.
Congratulations to our 2021 graduating students and research staff moving on into their next chapters. A few of them shared their experiences at Morgridge and their plans for the future.
Five prizes were awarded in the fourth annual Ethics Cartooning Competition, addressing the social impacts of scientific research, like issues on public health and communication during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Morgridge investigator Jason Cantor is partnering with Thermo Fisher Scientific to give biologists a new medium to study human cells in their most natural state.
Neuroendocrine cancers grow so slowly they often evade detection before it’s too late. By mimicking that slow growth in the lab, the Melissa Skala Lab hopes to speed up the creation of more effective treatments.
President Biden has laid out a vision for elevating the importance of science in this country. But it’s up to all scientists to help educate Americans about the benefits of science and the discoveries that have changed our world.
President Biden has laid out a vision for elevating the importance of science in this country. But it’s up to all scientists to help educate Americans about the benefits of science and the discoveries that have changed our world.
Multiple COVID-19 vaccines are available, but some people are on the fence about getting their shot. Approaching a conversation with vaccine-hesitant friends and family may be challenging. Three scientists and public health experts spoke to more than 250 members during a Fearless Science Seminar Series.
The Morgridge Ethics Cartooning Competition invited entrants to make a cartoon on any ethical issue arising in or from biomedical research.
Scientists have developed a nondestructive way of measuring drug treatment responses in lab-grown cancer samples.
Districts are finding creative ways to safely give students unique experiences while staying in the classroom.
Ashley Cortes Hernandez is excited to bring Latinx representation to the team in hopes of making STEM more accessible to underrepresented communities in her new role as assistant outreach coordinator for Discovery Outreach.
A partnership with Genentech is helping Morgridge Investigator Tim Grant improve software that helps scientists harness the incredible power of cryo-EM microscopes for drug discovery.
The Jason Cantor Lab at Morgridge is utilizing a new cell culture medium to ask how critical genes are to the survival and reproduction of human cells under different growth conditions. The technique could have important ramifications for the treatment of human diseases.
Citing presentations from the Feb. 24 Morgridge Institute Fearless Science Seminar, CBS 58 in Milwaukee reported that new booster vaccines are in development that will specifically target COVID 19 variants that have recently emerged around the world.
Johan den Boon, anesthesiologist Dr. Bill Hartman, and pediatric infectious disease specialist Dr. James Conway presented for a webinar about the science of vaccines.
For more than ten years, the Field Trip Program has brought students and teachers to Madison for a day of activity and exploration. But when the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered on-campus activity, the Discovery Outreach Team had to get creative.
Jan Huisken and Kevin Eliceiri will lead an initiative to develop and advance light sheet microscopy technology through a grant funded by the Beckman Foundation.
The Discovery Outreach team is growing an iceberg. The visible part above the water is made up of the tens of thousands of people of all ages who participate in programs each year. And the mass below the surface contains hundreds of Wisconsin scientists, researchers and experts who are adding their voice to science engagement.
Stem cell pioneer James Thomson is leading a potentially transformational project to develop a safe and functional cell-based artificial artery that could be pulled from medical inventories and used by vascular surgeons.
The Morgridge Institute’s Kevin Eliceri describes how a new grant will help foster learning and community for UW–Madison students interested in bioimaging.
Morgridge Institute spinoff company OnLume had a banner year in 2020, receiving Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval, meeting its venture funding goals and launching its first clinical trial with a California company. And they are getting expert feedback from UW Health physicians on their groundbreaking fluorescence imaging device.
Investigator Kevin Eliceiri leads a grant with BioImaging North America, which was recently awarded $1.2 million in funding from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.
A few of our Morgridge alumni shared thoughts on their research experience at the Morgridge Institute, their plans moving forward and their warm shoutouts to some of the people who helped them along the way.
Medical Engineering graduate student Amani Gillette has become one of the Morgridge Institute’s top ambassadors for science outreach.
Kayla Huemer, a graduate of the Morgridge Fab Lab and alumna of UW–Madison, is tackling machine learning at Stanford. Huemer brings a depth of experience in engineering and design which she honed during her time in the BerbeeWalsh Prototype Pathway.
Morgridge postdoctoral fellow Jayhun Lee is a lead author in a new study that outlines the first-ever cell atlas of the tropical parasite schistosome, an advance that could provide new alternatives for fighting a disease that impacts more than 200 million people globally.
Wisconsin students and teachers took part in an online session called “My Story in Science So Far: From Voices Underrepresented in Science,” as part of a field trip to the Wisconsin Science Festival in October.
Researchers at the Morgridge Institute and UW–Madison want to ensure that pancreatic cancer treatment options are accessible to all — regardless of race, ethnicity, or insurance status — so that patients can make the most informed decisions regarding their care.
Inspired by the need for smarter and cheaper ways to screen chemicals for potential therapeutic targets, Morgridge investigator Anthony Gitter is finding answers with machine learning tools.
With every heartbeat comes a rhythmic pulse that helps blood flow through the body. Understanding this pulsatile flow can offer insights on the impacts of blood vessel development and cardiovascular disease. New research uses an “organ-on-a-chip” model to study pulsatile flow in a more biologically relevant way.
Engineers are well-equipped to address the world’s development challenges, but good engineering alone is not enough. We need the emerging field of ‘global engineering,’ argues Kevin Eliceiri, a Morgridge medical engineering investigator, and Rebecca Alcock, a recent alumna of the UW–Madison graduate program in biomedical engineering.
Morgridge bioethicist in residence Pilar Ossorio, Jonathan Kimmelman, and Seema Shah joined Gabriella Gerhardt on October 27 to discuss the complex ethical questions surrounding a coronavirus vaccine.
Morgridge Postdoctoral Fellow Jose Ayuso won the “Best Paper Award” at the 2020 Micro Total Analysis Systems conference for his work on cancer microenvironments in tumor evolution and progression.
Morgridge and UW–Madison are partners on a $22.5 million project from the National Science Foundation to advance high-throughput computing technology and promote usage nationwide.
A Morgridge imaging study of macrophages — immune cells that are important to human health, but paradoxically can help some cancers grow and spread — is offering better ways to understand these cells and target them with immunotherapies.
Researchers at the Morgridge Institute for Research, Albany Medical Center, and UW–Madison assembled a profile of biological molecules that correlated not only with COVID-19 infection, but with disease severity. More target molecules will likely be found as others analyze the data, which is freely available online.
The 10th annual Wisconsin Science Festival was held virtually for the first time this past weekend, highlighted by a virtual road trip. Children of all ages could view tours, panels, lessons and so much more virtually, allowing them to travel all over the state without ever leaving their homes.
OnLume Surgical, a spinoff company originating from Morgridge Institute research, has received a 2020 Wisconsin Innovation Award. The company, which develops precise fluorescence for image-guided surgery, was chosen for the award from more than 400 nominees.
Researchers have identified more than 200 molecular features that strongly correlate with COVID-19 severity.
National Science Foundation leader Fleming Crim will give a talk on Friday, October 16 at 2 p.m. titled NSF Broader Impacts: Fostering Connections to Expand the Societal Benefits of Basic Research, as a part of the Wisconsin Science Festival’s speaker series.
Morgridge Institute spinoff company OnLume Surgical, a medical device company developing novel imaging systems for use during surgery, was recognized as one of the ten (10) finalists for the 2020 Wisconsin Innovation Awards.
Morgridge Institute investigator and UW–Madison biomedical engineering professor Kevin Eliceiri has been elected a fellow by The Optical Society, an honor given to only one in 10 members.
From the novel coronavirus to food sciences, the 10th annual Wisconsin Science Festival, held October 15-18, will feature over 100 virtual events.
UW–Madison and the Morgridge Institute for Research will get $22.7 million over six years from the National Institutes of Health to create a national center for imaging techniques that flash-freeze biological molecules to let scientists see a better picture of their function.
As health officials move closer to developing safe vaccines against COVID-19, Morgridge virology expert Paul Ahlquist argues for the need for patience and trust during what will be the largest vaccination effort in more than 70 years.
A national research initiative announced today will place the University of Wisconsin–Madison at the forefront of a revolution in imaging fostered by cryo-electron microscopy and cryo-electron tomography.
“A mill won’t last long if there is no mine, but a mill is required to get the products to the market,” Morgridge investigator Melissa Skala said during a Wisconsin Technology Council webinar. “What I find so powerful about the Endless Frontier Act is that it supports both the mine and the mill to benefit innovation across the spectrum.”
Morgridge investigator Melissa Skala participated in a Wisconsin Technology Council webinar promoting bipartisan support for the Endless Frontier Act, which would bolster national research funding.
Jan Huisken, medical engineering investigator at the Morgridge Institute for Research, has been awarded the 2020 Lennart Nilsson Award for outstanding achievements in biological imaging.
After ten years as a student, mentor, and engineer in the Morgridge Institute, Ben Cox is finishing his postdoctoral fellowship in the BerbeeWalsh Prototype Pathway and heading to the University of Chicago Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
The workshop series, which wrapped up in late July, brought more than 100 students and 15 teachers “face-to-face” to learn online from scientists at the Morgridge Institute for Research.
Why is it that some COVID-19 patients become extremely ill and die, while others experience only mild symptoms? A new study uses mass spectrometry, RNA sequencing, and machine learning to explore the molecular traits that might influence the severity of the disease.
Kaitlin Fisher, the 2020 Morgridge Metabolism Interdisciplinary Fellow, aims to understand the genes that influence carbon metabolism and the process of gluconeogenesis in yeasts.
Morgridge researchers uncovered in a new study how schistosomes, parasitic flatworms that infect more than 200 million people in the tropics, trick the host’s immune system and continue producing eggs for decades.
Researchers at the Morgridge Institute and UW–Madison have developed a novel label-free imaging technique that exploits autofluorescence in cells to differentiate between active and off-duty T cells.
Computer Sciences Professor Miron Livny has been selected for two prestigious IEEE awards: the 2020 IEEE Technical Committee on Distributed Processing (TCDP) Award for Outstanding Technical Achievement and a 2020 IEEE TDCP ICDCS High Impact Paper Award.
A team of developmental biologists at the Morgridge Institute for Research has discovered a means by which schistosomes, parasitic worms that infect more than 200 million people in tropical climates, are able to outfox the host’s immune system.
Morgridge scientists John Brubacher, Anthony Gitter, Brian Bockelman, Ben Cox and Katie Overmyer, joined Gabriella Gerhardt on July 22 for a Fearless Science webinar about rapidly applying technology and methods to answer COVID-19 questions.
A new imaging method developed by the Skala lab uses the natural autofluorescence within cells to assess T cell activity. The technique could help assess T cell involvement in immunotherapies.
The scientific community’s shift on wearing masks to fight the pandemic tells us something important about the scientific process. Science can get things wrong, but the constant push for new knowledge — combined with an ability to admit and correct mistakes — should always prevail.
UW–Madison announced Tuesday that scientists from the university and the Morgridge Institute for Research have been able to capture “strikingly improved images” of virus group, which could help aid in the creation of antiviral drugs and treatment for COVID-19.
For the first time, scientists at the Morgridge Institute for Research have generated near atomic resolution images of a major viral protein complex responsible for replicating the RNA genome of a member of the positive-strand RNA viruses.
Morgridge bioethicist in residence Pilar Ossorio commented in STAT about the growing problem of hospitals not disclosing to patients how many clinical decisions are now being made with artificial intelligence.
Miron Livny is the recipient of the 2020 IEEE Outstanding Technical Achievement Award due to his influential contribution of the HTCondor system for distributed and high-throughput computing.
Morgridge bioethicist in residence Pilar Ossorio warns that “conditions are ripe for cutting corners” in the research push to combat COVID-19.
Writing in The Hill, Morgridge CEO Dr. Brad Schwartz provides insight and context for scientific discovery as a foundation for economic prosperity. As the United States looks to science to help us get past the COVID-19 pandemic, we would be well advised to also look back.
Morgridge CEO Brad Schwartz offers a statement of support for the appointment of Tommy Thompson as interim president of the University of Wisconsin System.
For over ten years, rural high school students have come to Madison to take part in the Rural Summer Science Camp at the Morgridge Institute. This year, the camp will still take place virtually.
The novel coronavirus presented a significant hurdle for Discovery Outreach team—how do you bring science to rural students during a pandemic? Now in its 14th year, the Rural Summer Science Camp is celebrating a new milestone: an entirely digital experience.
The deadliest cases of COVID-19 often arise in patients with a variety of pre-existing conditions, known to medicine as “comorbidity.” A Morgridge Institute for Research project will investigate those disease relationships in the search for new drug treatments.
The Morgridge Institute for Research Board of Trustees voted on Wednesday to elect Carl Gulbrandsen, emeritus managing director of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Association (WARF), as the new chairman of the 20-member Morgridge Institute board.
The Morgridge Institute for Research Board of Trustees voted on Wednesday to elect Carl Gulbrandsen, emeritus managing director of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Association (WARF), as the new chairman of the 20-member Morgridge Institute board.
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, Paul Ahlquist and Tony Gitter joined CEO Brad Schwartz in a webinar where they discussed COVID-19 and the broader context of viral pandemics and how we respond to them.
Melissa Skala, a University of Wisconsin–Madison associate professor of biomedical engineering, and collaborators have used an approach called optical metabolic imaging (OMI) to effectively assess that heterogeneity and related treatment responses in organoids created with tissues from patients with breast cancer and pancreatic cancer.
Morgridge CEO Brad Schwartz is featured in a report discussing the return of in-person research following nearly three months of social distancing due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A Morgridge Institute for Research project intended to shed light on planarians — remarkable flatworms capable of almost limitless regeneration — is being repurposed to focus on the novel coronavirus causing COVID-19.
The Discovery Outreach team demonstrates their commitment to provide valuable programming by translating Saturday Science into a digital experience during an unprecedented time.
Stem cell pioneer and Morgridge investigator James Thomson was named to the Power List 2020 for his contributions to advancing the field of medicine to save lives and improve the world.
Morgridge virology investigator Anthony Gitter, an assistant professor of biostatistics and medical informatics at UW–Madison, has co-developed a software tool called Manubot to help orchestrate a rapid expert assessment of COVID-19 diagnostics and therapeutics.
Congratulations to the graduating students and research staff as they move onward and upward. A few of these students and staff shared about their time at the Morgridge Institute, their accomplishments and their plans for what’s next.
In the center of the COVID-19 pandemic, many hospitals are racing to maintain quality care for patients with severe disease while facing a shortage of resources and limited understanding of the novel coronavirus.
Given the death toll and multi-trillion dollar costs of COVID-19, it’s not hyperbole to suggest that an effort on the scale of the Space Race is needed to break the cycle of viral pandemics.
Bioethicist Pilar Ossorio says the world could be at risk of sacrificing essential knowledge for fighting COVID-19 and future deadly viruses if the COVID-19 response is not accompanied by sound research.
From designers and engineers to sewists and 3D printing hobbyists, they’re joining a global movement to combat the shortage of personal protective equipment.
Charlotte Kanzler, a first-year graduate student in the UW–Madison Cellular and Molecular Biology program and a member of the Phil Newmark lab at Morgridge, took the top prize in the third annual Ethics Cartooning Contest.
Tim Grant, a cryo-electron microscopy pioneer, joins the Morgridge Institute this month as the newest investigator. Grant joins a growing collaboration at UW–Madison where he will use cryo-EM to help biologists see the structure of molecules within cells.
The Morgridge Institute for Research is part of a multi-institution research project to develop a device that improves muscle tissue healing for serious injuries, using a combination of artificial intelligence, bioelectronics, and regenerative medicine.
Morgridge CEO Brad Schwartz provides an update on how we’re keeping scientists and teams safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As of March 18, the Discovery Building, home of the Morgridge Institute for Research, will be closed to the public. All public events in the building are canceled. Visit here for important COVID-19 updates.
High-throughput computing facilitated at the Morgridge Institute is helping scientists explore one of the mysteries of human consciousness: How the brain processes information while we are under anesthesia or asleep.
Emerging cell therapies are giving hope to cancer patients, but new analytical tools are desperately needed. Melissa Skala and her team are going all in on the challenge.
A device to help surgeons better see tissue during operations has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The technology is based on research at the Morgridge Institute for Research.
The Morgridge Ethics Cartooning Competition invited entrants to make a cartoon on any ethical issue arising in or from biomedical research. Now, you can help choose the competition winners.
Morgridge investigator Melissa Skala shares her perspective on a promising new approach to treating pancreatic cancer in this feature from Massive Science.
Morgridge bioethicist in residence Pilar Ossorio comments on the ethical perils of China’s efforts to use DNA-based technology to recognize faces — a potential weapon for racial profiling.
Events hosted by UMDF have enabled the Pagliarini Lab to connect with those who may directly benefit from the findings of their research: patients with mitochondrial disease.
Kevin Eliceiri says he has always believed that science is best done by building on the work of others and openly sharing what you have done.
Wearable, smart technologies are transforming the ability to monitor and improve health, but a decidedly low-tech commodity — the humble toilet — may have potential to outperform them all.
Schistosomiasis is one of the most devastating tropical diseases in the world. The Newmark Lab wants to develop something that prevents this parasitic infection.
The recent development of physiologic media holds immense potential to improve understanding of human biology.
Tiny aquatic invertebrates, once a nuisance to scientists studying snail fever, may actually hold the key to fighting the spread of the tropical disease.
The Wisconsin Science Festival—now in its ninth year—offered more than 330 events across the state for people of all ages to dive into science topics.
HHMI reports on the Newmark Lab’s discovery and purification of a substance made by rotifers that can paralyze the worms that cause schistosomiasis, a dangerous infection that affects 200 million people worldwide.
The Phillip Newmark Lab has isolated a natural chemical capable of paralyzing the parasitic worm schistosome, opening the door to new ways to combat a neglected tropical disease that sickens more than 240 million people.
At the Morgridge Institute for Research in the Discovery Building on the UW–Madison campus, David Green’s granddaughter — U/S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin — met the scientists who are continuing his early study of metabolism science, in hopes of breakthroughs that will help treat or reverse numerous diseases.
Pediatric anesthesia is a stressful and critical procedure. A project with the Morgridge Fab Lab aims to create a new medical device that alerts clinicians to compromised airways.
Forward-thinking science and childhood memories came full circle on Wednesday for U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, who visited a lab at the Morgridge Institute for Research that is carrying on the inspired legacy of her grandfather, David E. Green.
As 2019 Nobel Prize announcements unfold, Morgridge CEO Brad Schwartz reflected on his all-time favorite winner. “Howard Temin represented what society expects from us and had the characteristics that make society willing to fund our work,” Schwartz wrote in Scientific American. “People want scientists who get up every morning committed to finding the truth.”
Panels on Oct. 17 and 18 during the Wisconsin Science Festival will examine representation and inclusion in science and science in entertainment and the arts. Both afternoon panels will take place in the Discovery Building.
Peter Favreau, a postdoctoral researcher at the Morgridge Institute for Research, discusses how the use of Optical Microscopy is helping to create individualized effective cancer treatments based on each patient’s tumor cells.
Scientists have identified the stem cells that allow tapeworms to regenerate and found that their location in proximity to the head is essential, according to a new study in eLife.
The 2019 Wisconsin Science Festival, held Oct. 17-20, will feature more than 220 events statewide and include everything from fossil exploration and robotic engineering to animal encounters and the science of Star Wars.
In a new study published in Nature Metabolism, the Jing Fan Lab highlights how changing metabolism can regulate the course of an immune response.
In the game against an essentially unlimited pool of virus threats, humanity is seriously outmatched. The Ahlquist Lab is working to develop broad-spectrum antivirals, solutions that will target many viruses at once.
The Morgridge Institute’s project to capture early developmental timing of humans “in a dish” was included in The Scientific American’s “Best Science GIFs” feature. This weekly feature highlights the most amazing short video clips produced in the world of science.
A Morgridge regenerative biology team has created a first-ever human model for developmental timing: A “clock in a dish” that will help explore mysteries of early human development.
Dave Pagliarini won the Earl and Thressa Stadtman Young Scholar Award given by the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB).
Tim Grant, a research specialist at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s (HHMI) Janelia Farm Research Campus, is the latest addition to the core team.
Bruno Martorelli Di Genova wants to eliminate the use of cats in the study of the parasite Toxoplasma gondii, and the results of his groundbreaking research suggest he could do just that.
Preterm birth is a global health problem without a solution. New research aims to develop non-invasive, safe imaging tools to better identify the risk of preterm birth.
The Morgridge Summer Science Camp seeks to immerse rural high school students into research and allow them to experience a larger, urban research campus.
Tom Still, president of the Wisconsin Technology Council, focused his statewide business column on July 21 on a novel eye research partnership between the Morgridge Institute and Medical College of Wisconsin.
For the last three weeks of July, the Discovery Building hosted
70-plus high school students and teachers for the Rural Summer Science Camp.
The Rural Summer Science Camp received a boost this year
from BioForward, an association representing more than 200 biohealth companies in Wisconsin.
This fall, the Morgridge Institute for Research will convene international leaders in metabolic research at the third Frontiers in Metabolism—Mechanisms of Metabolic Diseases meeting.
The Morgridge Rural Summer Science Camp, where rural high school students and teachers take a deep dive into science research over the course of a week, is expanding and offering a third week of camp thanks to new support from a National Science Foundation (NSF) project.
Jacquelyn Fredrick, a longtime executive with one of the nation’s leading providers of blood health solutions, has joined the Morgridge Institute for Research Board of Trustees.
Welcome to Masters of Microscopy: The People Behind the Lens, where we showcase and celebrate the individuals who are the heart of the Nikon Small World competitions. They are scientists, artists, researchers, educators and everyday curious individuals who uncover the fascinating microscopic world around us.
A Madison-Milwaukee scientific partnership is powering an effort to better understand the complicated mechanics of human vision.
Our portable, shareable microscope, called Flamingo, offers a chance for biologists who have a crazy idea to reach out to us do some great research — and for us to build a custom instrument to solve unique questions in biology.
Blood banks have been vital in medical care since the early 1900s, and now a team of scientists at the Morgridge Institute for Research in Madison, Wisconsin, wants to take the concept a step further.
Congratulations to the graduating students and research staff who will be moving onward and upward. A few of these students and staff shared about their time at the Morgridge Institute, their accomplishments and their plans for what’s next.
Scientists at the Morgridge Institute are working toward a dream of creating artery banks with readily-available material to replace diseased arteries during surgery. Recent work highlights highlights a better way to grow smooth muscle cells, putting the science one step closer to that goal.
Anthony Gitter faced a challenge: How could he translate his work into something children could understand and maybe even enjoy? The answer to that question: ‘protein pinball.’
Katherine Overmyer, a former Morgridge postdoctoral fellow, was named the associate director of the Laboratory for Biomolecular Mass Spectrometry (LBMS) at UW–Madison.
Congratulations to Jiaye “Henry” He, a member of the Huisken Lab, for his second straight winning entry in the UW–Madison annual “Cool Science Image” awards.
Since 2015, engineering students at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have teamed up with Morgridge Institute for Research engineers and clinicians at UW Hospital.
Five prizes were awarded in the second annual Morgridge Ethics Cartooning Competition, a contest that invites participants to make a cartoon on any ethical issue arising in or from biomedical research. The competition drew 65 entrants from more than 32 different departments and programs at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and affiliated research institutions.
Imaging of molecules, cells and tissues is central to biomedical research and clinical practice, allowing scientists to understand and identify disease. Yet progress in the imaging field has been slowed by inadequate software and limited sharing of advanced microscopy methods. The CZI Imaging Scientists program aims to move the field of imaging forward by increasing collaboration between biologists and technology experts and improving the imaging tools that scientists use.
An invention designed to transform how and where high-powered research microscopes are deployed — and who gets to use them — will make its way from Madison this spring to the fertile biology labs of greater Boston.
In a March 18 Xconomy opinion piece, Morgridge Fab Lab Director Kevin Eliceiri describes how a trifecta of engineering training, clinical experience and entrepreneurship is putting Wisconsin students in a great position for future success.
A biomedical research institute is prompting young scientists to think about the ethics of their research — not through a rulebook or a lecture, but with a cartooning contest.
In this Q&A, Scheufele shares information about the news environment, what it means for science communication, and what scientists can do to promote science and explain their work.
Give most kids a basic microscope and a leaf or a drop of pond water, and they are in awe of the, well, microscopic patterns and organisms they can now see. Give a cell biologist a transmission electron microscope (TEM), and they can understand how structures within cells are organized – and how changes in the structures contribute to diseases.
Any budding scientist knows that oil and water don’t mix. However, for our largely water-filled cells to thrive, nature needs to devise clever ways to make and move around the lipids—fat and oil-like compounds—that comprise membranes and other key cellular parts.
Every summer since 2007, students from some of the smallest high schools in Wisconsin have descended on the Morgridge Institute for Research for some big-time scientific immersion.
In late 2018, a Chinese scientist dropped a bombshell when he announced the birth of the world’s first gene-edited twins, and the scientific community is still grappling with the aftermath and ethical implications.
The Morgridge Ethics Cartooning Competition invited entrants to make a cartoon on any ethical issue arising in or from biomedical research. Now, you can help choose the competition winners.
Software development and quality managers that are looking to measure the benefit of static analysis now have a platform to do just that. Real-world benchmarks are now available in the Software Assurance Marketplace (SWAMP).
Together with the University of Wisconsin–Madison, we look back on 20 years of stem cell research and see where we’re going next. Catch up on what’s happened since James Thomson’s prescient prediction that stem cells “will change medicine, period.”
For Danielle Lohman, her passion for science policy began when she heard a PhD 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.
An ambitious new partnership in Wisconsin will create, connect, and activate world-class content creators in science, instruction and media with teachers and learners across the state and the nation.
Isabel Jones, Verona Area High School senior and second year YA, who works at the Morgridge Institute for Research, presented a scientific poster at one conference and spoke on a panel at another.
“There’s been very broad consensus that we shouldn’t be doing CRISPR on embryos yet.” Morgridge Institute bioethicist Pilar Ossorio speaks out about recent news of first human gene-edited babies.
Just as blood banks are essential to medicine, the Thomson Lab hopes to see the advent of artery banks that give surgeons a better, readily available material to replace diseased arteries. The lab is using pluripotent stem cells to grow the cellular building blocks of the artery — endothelial and smooth muscle cells — and coax them into assembling into arteries that can grow and thrive in a majority of patients.
James Thomson, the UW–Madison biologist whose stem cell discovery 20 years ago opened fascinating and promising new avenues in science, took time to discuss his thoughts on the breakthrough and what the future holds for the field of regenerative medicine.
The Rural Summer Science Camp has seen more than 500 rural high school students and teachers since its inception in 2007. Campers learn about stem cell science, medical engineering, epigenetics, bioinformatics and more while engaging with and immersing themselves in the work of active researchers at the Morgridge Institute for Research and UW–Madison.
Imagine your chances of developing an invasive cancer were the same as a coin toss. Do you opt for aggressive treatments like surgery and chemotherapy, or do you take your chances that the cancer will never manifest?
Alexandra Walsh, an assistant scientist in the lab of Morgridge medical engineer Melissa Skala, is leading a project to use non-invasive fluorescence imaging to identify and sort T cells for use in cancer immunotherapy treatments. The technology won a 2018 Innovation Award from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.
We’ve collected some of our favorite moments from the 2018 Wisconsin Science Festival. Vote for your favorite photo and be entered to win some Morgridge prizes!
Preterm births — which can lead to infant death or disability — are on the rise, accounting for nearly 400,000 of the country’s 4 million annual births. But doctors have a hard time figuring out which pregnant women are likely to deliver early.
This year the Wisconsin Society of Science Teachers and the Wisconsin Science Festival are partnering on a Statewide Science Challenge open to all K-12 schools. The 2018 challenge is called “Lunchroom Leftovers” and student teams are conducting detailed analyses of food waste in their school cafeterias.
As gene editing therapies for macular degeneration and other visual disorders work their way into clinical trials, the University of Wisconsin–Madison is on the forefront of research into making sure they are safe and effective.
Meet Dr. Elizabeth Haynes and Jiaye “Henry” He. Their tiny zebrafish video just won first prize in the annual Nikon Small World in Motion Competition. It basically selects the coolest movies or time-lapse photos taken through a microscope.
A new imaging project at the Morgridge Institute for Research might be the biology equivalent of a 19th century expressionist painting. Think Van Gogh’s “Starry Night,” a constellation of tiny lines of color combining into a powerful image. Except the canvas of this research project will be a zebrafish, and the paint will be individual cells of a developing embryo.
At the UW–Madison, the progress of the Morgridge Institute for Research is another example. Partly financed with a $50-million gift from John and Tashia Morgridge of Cisco Systems fame, the private- non-profit biomedical research center is focused on novel strategies to improve human health.
This week, Nikon announced the winners of the 2018 Nikon Small World in Motion contest. First prize went to Elizabeth Haynes and Jiaye “Henry” He of the University of Wisconsin–Madison for their mesmerizing time-lapse video of a zebrafish embryo growing its sensory nervous system over the course of 16 hours.
A glowing, branching web slowly grows more and more tiny connections, with thin white tendrils reaching in to a black void. It looks like a fractal art piece. But in fact, it’s someone’s science research—the developing nervous system of a zebrafish embryo.
Henry He, a doctoral student at the Morgridge Institute for Research, and Liz Haynes, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, won first place in the 2018 Nikon Small World in Motion Competition for a video depicting neural development in a zebrafish embryo.
Of the approximately 4 million births in the United States each year, at least 400,000 of them still trigger a state of desperation in maternity wards. Parents, doctors and medical staff feel this way over the challenge of managing high-risk pregnancies.
Three scientists at the Morgridge Institute for Research will describe what brought them to Madison and how breakthroughs in medical engineering, regenerative biology and medical imaging will help save lives at the Tuesday, Sept. 25 Tech Council Innovation Network luncheon meeting in Madison.
From food science and viruses to data visualization and climate change, there’s something for everyone at the 2018 Wisconsin Science Festival (WSF), held this year from Oct. 11-14.
Scientists with the IceCube neutrino detection project, located on the South Pole and run by the University of Wisconsin–Madison, announced in July that they found the origin point of a cosmic neutrino in an energy-spewing black hole 4 billion light years from Earth. Scientists say the discovery will provide a fundamental new tool for seeing the unseeable in the universe.
Melissa Skala and Paul Campagnola, a professor of biomedical engineering at UW–Madison, hope to make inroads toward improved drug therapies through a two-year National Institutes of Health Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant.
Jason Cantor could describe himself as an engineer, biologist and biochemist, but don’t try to put his expertise into one box. Cantor, a scientist exploring the environmental influences on cancer cell metabolism, is launching a new lab in the Metabolism Theme at the Morgridge Institute and joining the UW–Madison departments of biochemistry and biomedical engineering.
The SWAMP offers more than 30 open-source and commercial static code analysis tools fully integrated into its automated platform. A new classroom experiment represents an important front for the SWAMP as it aims to advance continuous assurance on software security.
The parasitic disease schistosomiasis is one of the developing world’s worst public health scourges. Researchers are searching for potential new targets by probing the cellular and developmental biology of the parasitic flatworm Schistosoma.
Two new Morgridge Institute for Research studies suggest the current tests, which measure the abundance of lipid classes, are insufficient. Rather, lipids identified and studied at the individual species level—instead of grouped in classes—may be better signatures of metabolic health.
Jan Huisken’s Morgridge team has developed a portable, shareable light sheet microscope. The project can be mailed to a lab anywhere in the world, configured remotely by Morgridge engineers, and run one to three months of experiments.
Every summer since 2007, students from some of the smallest high schools in Wisconsin descend on the Morgridge Institute for Research for the Morgridge Rural Summer Science Camp. Now, 12 years into the camp, organizers are finding it has been a difference-maker.
The study will use optical imaging techniques developed by Melissa Skala, a co-investigator at the Morgridge Institute, to monitor the evolution of 3D cancer tumor cultures over time.
Dane County high school students visited the Skala Lab to tackle pancreatic cancer, the third-leading cause of cancer deaths in Wisconsin.
The newly-launched Discovery Teen Science Café gives Madison high school students the opportunity to research, plan and host events that connect them with scientists working on topics the students are most interested in.
Family Science Nights are hands-on science activities hosted by K-12 schools and community centers—and a growing grassroots effort at the University of Wisconsin–Madison is helping to connect scientists and educators with families and community members.
The Morgridge Institute for Research is launching the John W. and Jeanne M. Rowe Center for Research in Virology, a new transformative research initiative made possible by the philanthropic support of John and Jeanne Rowe.
A graduate fellowship launched this year by the Morgridge Institute for Research will help bring “fresh eyes” to the growing pursuit of metabolism research at UW–Madison.
With the semester winding down, we are thrilled to congratulate graduating students and research staff who are moving on and up. More than 110 undergraduate and graduate students, in addition to post-doctoral fellows, work across six biomedical research themes at the Morgridge Institute.
In November 1998, the journal Science published James Thomson’s groundbreaking work on embryonic stem cells. There has been 20 years of progress since the initial discovery spawned a new field of research, and tremendous potential exists for the future. We reached out to the people who lived it, and they shared the experiences in their own words. This is their story.
Using the equivalent of hundreds of years of computing time on HTCondor, a Marshfield Clinic scientist is compiling a database that will map genetic connections to more than 8,000 human diseases.
OnLume, a spinoff from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, is continuing to develop its system for identifying tissue types during surgery. The company’s technology causes chemical labels to glow in the operating room.
On April 18 more than 170 scientists, researchers and supporters joined scientist o celebrate the 20th anniversary of the isolation of human embryonic stem cells.
The University of Wisconsin–Madison Department of Biochemistry will welcome Elizabeth Wright in July as a faculty member and director of the department’s newly established cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) facility.
When Ava VanDommelen was seven, she asked for her first microscope for Christmas. Now, at 17-years-old, she’s using microscopy to explore cancer tumors and the immune system at the Morgridge Institute for Research.
Two scientists at the Morgridge Institute for Research—Jayhun Lee and Jiaye “Henry” He—were named winners in the 2018 Cool Science Image Contest, competing against more than 170 submitted images and videos.
It’s your turn to pick the winners in the final head-to-head matchup of this March Madness-style bracket. Would you rather explore the mechanics of 3D printing or how viruses relate to cancer? You choose in the Blue Sky Science Bracket Challenge. Come back next week to support your favorite videos in the final championship! A winner will be crowned on April 9.
Umair Khan, a UW–Madison graduate student working at the Morgridge Institute for Research, took the top prize in the inaugural Ethics Cartooning Competition.
In the drive to reduce software security flaws, the Software Assurance Marketplace (SWAMP) at the Morgridge Institute for Research has enhanced its portable platform that brings a comprehensive suite of software assurance tools to the programmer’s desktop.
In a new report, we meet the scientists driven to understand the mysteries of biology and alleviate human suffering from disease. Take a look inside as we explore science at the Morgridge Institute for Research.
In an opinion piece published in The Hill, the nation’s leading news website on U.S. politics, Morgridge Institute for Research CEO Brad Schwartz and UW–Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank argue that a renewed investment in basic research is essential to America’s economic progress.
A new chair at the Morgridge Institute for Research takes aim at osteoarthritis, a debilitating and painful disease that affects more than 27 million Americans. Currently, osteoarthritis is largely treated with palliative care to help patients alleviate their symptoms.
Scientists at the Morgridge Institute for Research have discovered a promising new target to fight a class of viruses responsible for health threats such as Zika, polio, dengue, SARS and hepatitis C.
Bioinformatics professors Anthony Gitter and Casey Greene set out in summer 2016 to write a paper about the “state of the art” in deep learning for biomedicine, a hot new artificial intelligence field striving to mimic the neural networks of the human brain.
While refining ways to grow arterial endothelial cells in the lab, a regenerative biology team at the Morgridge Institute for Research unexpectedly unearthed a powerful new model for studying a hallmark of vascular disease.
The first Morgridge Ethics Cartooning Competition invited entrants to make a cartoon on any ethical issue arising in or from biomedical research. Now, you can help choose the competition winners. Voting will be open until January 31, 2018.
Planarians are flatworms, and they’re masters of regeneration with virtually unlimited capacity to regenerate any missing tissue or body part lost to injury or aging.
The Software Assurance Marketplace (SWAMP) has partnered with Synopsys, an industry leader in software security and quality, to expand its suite of assurance tools in support of the academic community.
Light from the sun comes in many different colors including colors we can see and some colors we can’t see. And just like sound waves or waves on the water, light travels in waves as well.
Coenzyme Q (CoQ) is a vital cog in the body’s energy-producing machinery, a kind of chemical gateway in the conversion of food into cellular fuel. But six decades removed from its discovery, scientists still can’t describe exactly how and when it is made.
There’s not one rule that applies to mushrooms. You have to know your biodiversity to know which species are edible and which species are not edible.
Molecules are formed by atoms bonding together, and there are many different types of molecules that you interact with every day. For example, water and sugar are both molecules.
Structurally joints don’t bend both ways because there are physical components within their design that prevent or resist motion. This could be bone, such as the elbow joint, or it could be ligamentous restraint, such as in the knee.
Last weekend, excited young people darted about with a delirium I haven’t seen since the Pokémon craze. The University of Wisconsin–Madison was the home base for the Wisconsin Science Festival that included 54 communities, leaving every citizen within an hour’s drive of an event.
Beetles are an extremely diverse group of insects on the planet. There are about a million or more described species of insects, that we know of so far, and of those about 400,000 are beetles.
We’ve collected some of our favorite moments from the 2017 Wisconsin Science Festival, held Nov. 2-5 in Madison and across the state. Vote for your favorite photo and be entered to win some Morgridge prizes!
Proteins are the workhorse molecules that perform all the functions in the cell and the body. Being able to detect and measure proteins is critical to figuring out basic biology, and the signature of diseases such as Alzheimer’s, cancer and diabetes. Josh Coon is creating technologies to do exactly that.
Iron is an essential nutrient to human life, the element by which we regenerate red blood cells. Too little iron can cause serious problems such as anemia. But too much can be toxic, potentially causing blood clotting. Rick Eisenstein studies iron metabolism, with the goal of helping humans achieve the optimal balance for health.
Hurricanes form near places like Florida and not further north like Wisconsin because they need some critical components to develop.
To learn from a virtual body, it would need to be able to accurately simulate or predict how the body responds to internal and external changes.
A new course teaches early-career scientists how to communicate their work outside of the lab, and is designed to turn real research into engaging stories, visuals and presentations.
Much depends on the circumstances in which the animals have become rare in the first place. It could be a big environmental change in the habitat, something affecting food, water, shelter or cover.
Morgridge’s own James Thomson (founder of Cellular Dynamics) and Rock Mackie (founder of Tomotherapy) are listed among the top nine “healthcare titans” fueling the Madison economy.
A trio of scientists from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the Morgridge Institute for Research participated in an international think tank this month on the intersection of genome editing technology and national security.
At a ceremony honoring several of the year’s most outstanding inventions, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) announced that it has granted the Morgridge Institute for Research $19 million in grants for the 2017-18 academic year.
Not all monsters lurk in the closet, hide under the bed, or go bump in the night; in fact, they are all around us. In basic research, you can find tapeworms who thrive on the blood of their animal hosts – or the limb-generating axolotl, a water amphibian whose very name means “water monster.”
A star is considered a sun if it’s in the center of a system with planets orbiting around it. Stars are formed in very large dark clouds. These dark clouds are made primarily of hydrogen and carbon monoxide.
Human papillomavirus (HPV) and the hormone estrogen are both linked to the development of cervical cancers, but how they work together has remained unclear. A new study by University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers shows how the combination of two factors influences the local cervical environment and drives the progression of cancer development.
September and October are the peak months for admiring fall foliage, the orange, yellow and red leaves. To understand why leaves change color, you have to start with the process of photosynthesis. All plants, including trees, have green leaves because of a compound called chlorophyll.
Tuesday’s announcement of the Nobel Prize in Physics, awarded to researchers Rainer Weiss of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Kip Thorne and Barry Barish of the California Institute of Technology, bears Morgridge Institute for Research and University of Wisconsin System connections.
Innovation can come from anywhere, but often it’s when the right people are in the right place at the right time.
Radio technology, astrobotany, dairy science and computer coding are just a handful of science topics to be explored at the 2017 Wisconsin Science Festival, held Nov. 2-5.
One reason the moon has craters because it gets hit by objects, small pieces of rocks that come from outer space. These are pieces of asteroids, comets that are flying around in the solar system.
Can you find the humor while searching for the ethical high ground? A new cartooning contest sponsored by the Morgridge Institute for Research will reward the most creative bioethical thinkers with up to $3,500 in cash prizes.
Gelatin is the basis of what makes a gummy bear a gummy bear, but we first start with sugar, corn syrup and water. Gelatin is thermoreversible, meaning that heat can turn it back into a liquid.
Jan Huisken teamed this summer with the Morgridge Institute computational technology team and technicians from storage platform company Dell EMC to create an end-run around the bottleneck. The team installed a storage system that creates a new intermediate 100-terabyte storage platform that will collect data straight from its origins at the microscope.
Milk can make many products because of its complex chemistry and history. Early humans used milk and had to experiment with various means to preserve it and its nutrition content over time.
In order for your brain to think, you need nerve cells that can detect information about the outside world and can transmit that information to other nerve cells.
When living creatures produce and emit light it’s called bioluminescence. The main reason fireflies glow is to find a mate, though they can also light up under other situations as a warning to others.
Before the last glaciation, which started about 30,000 years ago, there was a deep river valley that ran under where Lake Mendota and the other Madison lakes are now. A glacier moved into this area and slowly filled up the valley.
Not all dinosaurs were big. In fact, the smallest ones are the ones that are still alive today. The one big question is: How exactly did flight evolve?
Art conservators can use X-rays and infrared technology to learn more about the structure of a painting, the paint layers and what happened to a painting over time.
There are many, many objects beyond Pluto, but where they came from and when they formed is a whole other question.
Earlier this month, the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) received another major boost from the U.S. Department of Energy, receiving more than $250 million to conduct another five years of groundbreaking work on alternative fuels.
For the last 11 years, high school students and teachers from rural communities in Wisconsin have journeyed to Madison to dig into stem cell science, learning from leading researchers in regenerative medicine.
The 2017 Wisconsin Science Festival on November 2-5 will celebrate one of the great scientific “firsts” that Wisconsin bestowed on the world — the birth of public radio — while gazing into the future of radio technology, including the search for extraterrestrial life.
Jerrod Buckner is the newest member of the Morgridge Institute for Research Outreach team. With his background in designing afterschool programs, Buckner is working to connect elementary and middle school students and their families to the wonder of science happening here at Morgridge and the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
We all have genes in our body, and our genes carry DNA. Siblings can inherit various genes from their parents and they don’t always get the same ones.
Important cells for distinguishing between good and bad are T cells, and it’s estimated that there are approximately a trillion T cells in our body.
New techniques developed at the Morgridge Institute for Research and the University of Wisconsin–Madison have produced, for the first time, functional arterial cells at both the quality and scale to be relevant for disease modeling and clinical application.
Pain is subjective and is different for every person who experiences it. There’s also different dimensions of pain including sensory, emotional and behavioral components.
From the science, researchers know a lot about how reading works, how children learn, the kinds of obstacles children encounter, and where teachers and classroom activities can make a difference.
The crux of the problem is that, over the years, many leaders of research institutions have treated research as a volume business and focused more on money and operational size than on the discovery of new knowledge.
In the fight against the viruses that invade everyday life, seeing and understanding the battleground is essential. Scientists at the Morgridge Institute have, for the first time, imaged molecular structures vital to how a major class of viruses replicates within infected cells.
Fireworks, as you can tell from the name, involve fire. To get a fire you need fuel, oxygen and heat, and that’s true in fireworks also.
From axolotls to zebrafish, this story explores some of science’s classic models, others more unusual, but all with potential for increasing our understanding of biology to improve human health.
For two weeks in July, more than 50 Wisconsin rural high school students and 10 teachers will converge on Madison to get a taste of stem cell science, rubbing elbows in labs with some of the world’s leading researchers in regenerative medicine.
Friction is a force that resists sliding motion between contacting surfaces. A bike, for example, has many instances of friction.
Cats have functional barbs or papillae on their tongue made of keratin, the same material that nails and our hair is made out of. They’re very rigid little barbs that face backwards.
It’s normal and natural for baby teeth to fall out. Usually kids start to get loose teeth between ages 5 and 7. The new permanent tooth begins eating the root of the baby tooth away, that baby tooth becomes loose, and then the permanent tooth eventually pushes it out and erupts into its place.
More children and families can take a monthly plunge into hands-on science, thanks to an American Family Insurance and Boys & Girls Club of Dane County partnership to provide transportation to and from Saturday Science events at the Discovery Building.
Rainbows are really cool because they’re a blend between art and science. It required a number of scientists to actually explain how they form, including Isaac Newton.
Plants need sunlight for a process that we call photosynthesis. Plants are what we call autotrophs, meaning they create their own food or energy to grow.
Counting the number of galaxies in the universe is tough, because we can’t see all of the galaxies in the universe. At a certain point, distant galaxies disappear from our field of view.
Water scarcity is essentially when there’s not enough water in the right place at the right time. Even in places that seem water-rich, it may not be clean enough for its intended purposes.
3D printing is the process by which we make a piece layer by layer, and the various forms of 3D printing differ in how they make each layer. Extrusion-based printing, or fused deposition modeling, uses filaments. It takes a raw material and extrudes it through a die to create a long strand That’s what a filament is.
The rule to remember for curveballs: whichever way the front face of the ball is spinning will be the direction in which it curves. The effect is more dramatic with ping pong balls and tennis balls because of their lower mass compared to baseballs.
Anthony Gitter, a Morgridge investigator and assistant professor of biostatistics and medical informatics, says the goal will be to create machine learning tools that dramatically reduce the time and cost associated with screening compounds for therapeutic relevance.
Dave Pagliarini, lead investigator of metabolism for the Morgridge Institute for Research and associate professor of biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, is being recognized for major early-career achievement by The Protein Society.
Robots can be similar to people, but they aren’t necessarily so. People create the robots and can choose what aspects of functionality and design are important, but there are some benefits you get out of similarity.
Melissa Skala, a Morgridge Institute for Research investigator in medical engineering, won a highly competitive award from the nonprofit organization Stand Up to Cancer at its annual 2017 summit January in Santa Monica.
The production of biofuels starts by growing plants out in a field or forest. All of the biomass represented in those plants essentially comes through photosynthesis.
Dr. Stuart Firestein, author of “Failure: Why Science Is So Successful” and professor at Columbia University, brings attention to the virtues of courage and patience when advising young investigators on how to handle failure at the beginning of their career.
There’s actually gravity pretty much everywhere. But why do we feel gravity more here on the surface of the Earth instead of in space when astronauts appear weightless?
With about 100 lines of code, a Morgridge Institute for Research team has unleashed a fast, simple and predictive text-mining tool that may turbo-charge big biomedical pursuits such as drug repurposing and stem cell treatments.
A hard disk drive contains a circular shiny silver disk, similar to a CD or DVD but much smaller. This disk is coated with a magnetic material, and information is stored by magnetizing very tiny pieces of this surface.
When cheese is manufactured, the milk is clotted and some of the water removed. You end up with a curd, a tough structure where the proteins in the cheese form a mesh.
The human brain includes 100 billion neurons, or brain cells, and is an ever-changing organ.
As the medical engineering lead at Morgridge, Huisken will continue his innovations in “smart microscopy”.
New cells are created from existing cells through a process referred to as the cell cycle. One cell can make a copy of itself and form two new daughter cells.
The mystery of what controls the range of developmental clocks in mammals — from 22 months for an elephant to 12 days for a opossum — may lie in the strict time-keeping of pluripotent stem cells for each unique species.
Rockets encounter most of the resistance when they’re near the Earth’s surface. The higher up they get, the thinner the air gets, and the resistance pushing against the rocket gets lower.
Darryl Thelen, professor in mechanical engineering and biomedical engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, conducts research with this notion in mind while using computational models of the musculoskeletal system and high-throughput computing resources to refine knee surgical procedures.
If there were two words that described Jose Dominguez they would be: radiating enthusiasm. It’s easy to see his incredible passion and positivity for his research and life.
Hannah Carey, a UW–Madison professor of comparative biosciences, uses hibernating mammals as models to study extreme changes in physiology and nutrition that occur on a seasonal basis. Carey discusses this remarkable process and its potential to impact human health by improving trauma care.
Most bee species do not make honey, but those that do—as you might guess—are specifically called honey bees.
It’s a complicated process, but there are charges inside wires and these charges can be acted on by an electric field. They can move through the wire in something that’s called an electric current.
By partnering with the Morgridge Institute for Research, BME landed internationally recognized optical imaging pioneers Melissa Skala and Jan Huisken to their new faculty ranks.
A concussion is defined as a traumatic blow to the head coupled with some kind of altered consciousness. Some people refer to it as seeing stars, getting your bell rung. People may feel disoriented for a period of time.
A broad definition says virtual reality is the idea of combining the physical world and the artificial world in such a way that the two are indistinguishable. How could technology provide all of the sensory sensations or different ways that people see, feel and hear the world such that the artificial and physical are blended together?
Why does it take about nine months for humans to fully develop from conception to birth, compared to 22 months for an elephant, or just three weeks for the world’s most-studied mammal, the mouse?
The tides are the result of the moon exerting its gravitational force on the ocean and bulging it both toward and away from the moon. The tide is higher, the ocean is higher, at the location closest to the moon and on the opposite side of the Earth.
Infectious agents—both bacterial and viral—are responsible for about 25 percent of all human cancers. The virus infection does not by itself cause cancer, but can interfere with a cell’s normal maintenance of things.
All those different types of life are products of selection based on behavioral or physical traits.
It’s a complicated question because, while researchers have grown spruce seedlings on the International Space Station, they haven’t grown full-size trees. Using knowledge of how trees operate on Earth, scientists can guess what’s going to happen when they’re grown in space.
Two important factors influence the shape of snowflakes. One is the ambient temperature, and the other is humidity. A snowflake needs to grow under the condition of a super saturated environment.
Swallowing is one of the most obvious functions the epiglottis serves, because it hoods over the airway, or larynx, when you eat and drink. When you swallow, the muscles in your throat respond by pulling the voice box up and underneath the tongue, and the epiglottis is pulled to cover over the larynx.
Not all mosquitos can transmit the Zika virus, and that’s the case with any mosquito-borne pathogen. There are about 3,000 species of mosquitos in the world and only a handful—about 150—are considered vectors of pathogens, capable of spreading viruses.
In a guest blog for the Nov. 22 online edition of Scientific American, Morgridge Institute CEO Brad Schwartz writes about a challenge research institutions face in conveying the true societal value of research.
Freckles are composed of an ingredient called melanin, which protects against damage caused by UV light. Your body makes melanin to protect itself from sun damage.
OnLume received the $300,000 Phase I SBIR grant through the National Cancer Institute (NCI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for the development of imaging and lighting systems for transient lighting in fluorescence image-guided surgery.
Thunder is formed by the intense heating produced by lightning. The thunder you hear is made up of vibrations that travel as sound waves through the air until they reach your ear.
Genetics is the simple answer to why chickens lay different-colored eggs. Some chickens lay white shell eggs and some lay brown shell eggs, similar to the way hair color varies in people.
In terms of temperature, sound waves move faster in warm air and slower in cold air. So as sound moves through the atmosphere, some parts of the wave will be moving faster than the rest.
Organ transplantation has come a long way from its early days in the mid-twentieth century. But even with major medical advances, there’s still an admittedly familiar factor at play: ice.
The prospect of creating artery “banks” available for cardiovascular surgery, bypassing the need to harvest vessels from the patient, could transform treatment of many common heart and vascular ailments.
Imagine building a robot in three stages.
3D printing involves making an object layer by layer. There are many 3D printing techniques, and they all differ in how each layer is constructed. Each type of printer has a different opportunity or mechanism for adding color.
A solar flare is a release of magnetic energy from the sun. The energy is stored as a magnetic field around the sun, and then it is released with energetic particles and waves coming from the solar surface.
Oncologists are struggling to improve the grim survival rates of pancreatic cancer, which are especially frustrating in an era that is making good progress on other cancer fronts. “I think
Cedar-apple rust is one of several plant diseases that are all caused by different species of a fungus called gymnosporangium. All of these diseases are referred to as gymnosporangium rust diseases.
From Rosalind Franklin to Edwin Hubble, history has shown that athleticism and scientific prowess are not mutually exclusive traits.
In order to understand the biochemical underpinnings of disease, it is imperative to shrink down to the molecular level. It’s this mentality that steered Mateusz Manicki all the way from Poland’s Gdansk University to Madison, Wisconsin to study mitochondrial proteins. Manicki will be using mass spectrometry resources to better understand the functionality of cells contributing to a given disease.
Caterpillars start out as very small, tiny creatures. In the beginning they eat lots of food—just like the book “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”—and get bigger and bigger.