News from around the lab

Dr. Tim Kamp wins inaugural Schuster Prize

May 8, 2008

Timothy Kamp, a professor of medicine and physiology at the School of Medicine and Public Health, has been awarded the inaugural Schuster Prize for excellence in advancing cardiovascular medicine at the school.  Read the full news article at http://www.news.wisc.edu/15211

Virus mimics human protein to hijack cell division machinery

May 8, 2008
by Jill Sakai
Viruses are masters of deception, duping their host's cells into helping them grow and spread. A new study has found that human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) can mimic a common regulatory protein to hijack normal cell growth machinery, disrupting a cell's primary anti-cancer mechanism. Read the full news article online at http://www.news.wisc.edu/15213

Time Magazine names James Thomson one of “World’s Most Influential People”

Photo of James Thomson
Stem cell scientist James Thomson has been named one of Time magazine's "World's Most Influential People," with Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University. Last year, they each discovered a way to give human skin cells many of the characteristics of embryonic stem cells, an advance that avoids the destruction of embryos.

With cell as muse, art fuels scientist's quest

CMB Trainer and Alum (PhD '00) Ahna Skop is featured in Wisconsin Week

April 28, 2008
by Terry Devitt
For Ahna Skop, the tipping point to a career in science was a dance and a food fight.
Read the full news story at http://www.news.wisc.edu/15115

Dr. John Kuo receives the Young Clinician Investigator Award

Dr. Kuo is a faculty trainer in the CMB Program and an assistant professor in the Department of Neurological Surgury here at UW-Madison.  He has received The Young Clinician Investigator Award from the Neurosurgery Research and Education Foundation of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons for 2008.  This award is designed to support young neurosurgeons pursuing careers as clinician investigators, the Young Clinician Investigator Award is open to junior faculty for a one-year grant of $40,000.

Genetic pathway critical to disease, aging found

Feb. 20, 2008
by Terry Devitt

The same chemical reaction that causes iron to rust plays a similarly corrosive role in our bodies. Oxidative stress chips away at healthy cells and is a process, scientists know, that contributes to a host of diseases and conditions in humans ranging from Alzheimer's, heart disease and stroke to cancer and the inexorable process of aging. Read the full news article at: http://www.news.wisc.edu/14798

T cell immunity enhanced by timing of interleukin-7 therapy

Feb. 1, 2008
by Terry Devitt

That the cell nurturing growth factor interleukin-7 can help ramp up the ability of the immune system to remember the pathogenic villains it encounters is well known.
Read the full news article at: http://www.news.wisc.edu/14686

California company licenses WARF stem cell technology

Jan. 9, 2008
by Janet Kelly
BioTime, Inc.
(OTCBB: BTIM) has signed a licensing agreement with the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) for 173 patents and patent applications relating to human embryonic stem cell technology created by James Thomson at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.