Biomolecular Chemistry professor Melissa Harrison has been honored with a Romnes Named Professorship, as one of 11 distinguished campus researchers receiving them this year. This program, funded by WARF in recognition of the leadership of the late WARF Trustee President H. I. Romnes, is designed to bridge the gap between the Research Committee’s initial research …
News
Engin discovery: deleting a gene prevents Type 1 diabetes in mice
Removing a gene from the cells that produce insulin prevents mice from developing Type 1 diabetes by sparing the cells an attack from their own immune system, a new UW–Madison study shows. The cellular sleight of hand may suggest ways to prevent Type 1 diabetes in high-risk individuals, as well as other diseases in which …
IPiB Faculty Collaboration Results in Grant that Benefits Graduate Students and Research
The Integrated Program in Biochemistry (IPiB) — the joint graduate program of the Department of Biochemistry and Department of Biomolecular Chemistry — is full of collaborative faculty. One partnership in particular between the labs of biochemistry professor Michael Cox and biomolecular chemistry professor James Keck goes back nearly two decades. And a new National Institutes of Health grant to study the …
Audhya Receives Ride Scholarship for Cancer Research
Integrated Program in Biochemistry (IPiB) faculty member Jon Audhya was awarded The Ride Scholarship on Jan. 18, 2020 at the Wisconsin Hockey’s 4th Annual Face-off Against Cancer game for his exemplary discoveries in 2019. This award will help fund Audhya’s further studies of metastatic cancers. Audhya’s lab focuses on membrane biology and cell migration and …
Looking Fly: Harrison Lab Uses Fruit Flies to Understand Human Biology and Disease
Leave that last banana on the kitchen counter for a few too many days and you might find your forgetfulness rewarded by an invasion of fruit flies. These tiny pests, despite all outward appearances, actually share many important biological similarities with humans that make them valuable models for studying human disease, including cancers. Melissa Harrison, …
Patrick Cramer to Deliver 2020 Hilldale Lecture in Biological Sciences in late January
Patrick Cramer of the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry will give the prestigious UW–Madison 2020 Hilldale Lecture in Biological Sciences in late January. All members of the campus community and public are invited to attend the lecture on eukaryotic gene expression and transcription at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 23 in the Ebling Symposium …
Congratulations to Our Fall 2019 Ph.D. Graduates
Congratulations to the Integrated Program in Biochemistry (IPiB) students who successfully defended their theses this fall. Read a bit about each of these four new graduates and the research that went into receiving their Ph.D. in biochemistry below. Their broad interdisciplinary work covered research from areas like RNA-protein interactions, single-stranded DNA-binding proteins, and computational biochemistry, …
Pagliarini Lab Members Attend Mitochondrial Disease Walk, Interact with Patients
For people that suffer from rare mitochondrial diseases, there aren’t many places to turn. The United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation (UMDF) is one organization providing resources that allow them to find community — and also connect with scientists, such as those who study proteins and cellular processes that relate to their disease in the lab of biochemistry …
Can ‘Smart Toilets’ be the Next Health Data Wellspring?
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. That’s the conclusion of a team of metabolism scientists at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the Morgridge Institute for Research, who are working to put the tremendous …
Peering into a More ‘Human’ Petri Dish
Cell culture media, the cocktail of chemicals and nutrients that keep cells alive and thriving in a dish, have been an essential tool of biology for more than 70 years. Remarkably, the composition of these potions hasn’t fundamentally changed much over that time, primarily because they deliver what scientists need: Cells that stay viable and …