Gut Feeling
Students at a Chicago public high school got some hands-on—and hands-in—experience with two cannulated cows that CALS dairy science management instructor Ted Halbach and dairy science PhD student Shane...
View ArticleTasty Solution
After having a stroke in 2008, Jan Blume lost the ability to swallow for two full years. As she slowly regained that vital function, she faced a new challenge: drinking the thickened beverages that are...
View ArticleTargeting a Killer
By the time doctors diagnose septic shock, patients often are on a knife’s edge. At that point, for every hour that treatment is delayed, a person’s risk of death rises an alarming six percent. Time is...
View ArticleMeat, With a Touch of Fruit
When Jeff Sindelar talks about the ingredients he’s working with, you’d think he was making juice. Not quite. He’s adding things like cranberry concentrate, cherry powder, lemon extract and celery...
View ArticleMicrobes & Human Health
Jim Steele used to be one of the skeptics. He’d be at a conference, listening to early research on the health benefits of probiotics. Steele scoffed at the small experiments. “We would literally try...
View ArticleStopping Multiple Sclerosis
A diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (MS) is a hard lot. Patients typically get the diagnosis around age 30 after experiencing a series of neurological problems such as blurry vision, a wobbly gait or a...
View ArticleCreating a Healthier World
YOU CAN’T SPOT THEM RIGHT AWAY—they’re hidden in plain sight, often disguised as majors in the life sciences—but there are thousands of undergraduates on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus who,...
View ArticleThe Mysteries of RNA
For people who know about RNA mostly from its place in the central dogma of biology—DNA➙RNA➙Protein—this story may hold a number of surprises. That handy equation, taught in Biology 101 courses around...
View ArticleUpping the Orange
Sherry Tanumihardjo is a CALS professor of nutritional sciences and director of the Undergraduate Certificate in Global Health, a popular new program that draws participants from majors all across...
View ArticleFive things everyone should know about gluten
1. What is it? Gluten is a substance composed of two proteins—gliadin and glutenin—that are found in the endosperm (inner part of a grain) of wheat, rye, barley and foods made with those grains,...
View ArticleFive things everyone should know about . . . Milkweed
1. It is the stuff of life for monarch butterflies. Monarchs lay their eggs on milkweed, and milkweed leaves serve as nearly the sole food of monarch caterpillars. But many species benefit from the...
View ArticleOf Pests and Pathogens
Imagine you’re standing in a sun-drenched field full of lettuce plants. There’s a gentle breeze and a smattering of tiny insects flitting about. It’s a pleasant scene, right? Now let’s say one corner...
View ArticleUnpuzzling Diabetes
The body makes it seem so simple. You take a bite of supper, and the black-box machinery of metabolism hums into life, transforming food into fuel and building materials. It’s the most primal biology:...
View ArticleTo Eat It—Or Not
Food engineer Sundaram Gunasekaran, a professor of biological systems engineering, works with gold. But you won’t find the shiny yellow stuff in his lab; instead, the vials on his bench are mostly...
View ArticleCatch Up With … Luxme Hariharan BS’04 Biology
As a pediatric ophthalmologist, clinical researcher and child advocate, Luxme Hariharan has set herself a challenging goal: To prevent childhood blindness globally and help those with imperiled vision...
View ArticleClass Act: Keven Stonewall
Some researchers first find success late in their careers. And then there’s Keven Stonewall. Now a rising junior majoring in biology, Stonewall made news with research he did while still in high...
View ArticleUganda: The Benefits of Biogas
Generating enthusiasm for a new kind of technology is key to its long-term success. Rebecca Larson, a CALS professor of biological systems engineering, has already accomplished that goal in Uganda,...
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Second Life for Phosphorus
Phosphorus, a nutrient required for growing crops, finds its way from farm fields to our food and eventually to our wastewater treatment plants. At the plants, the nutrient causes major problems,...
View ArticleStealth Entry
Many human diseases—including cancer—are caused by protein malfunctions. Those malfunctions, in turn, are caused by damaged DNA that gets translated into the damaged proteins. While many clinicians and...
View ArticleBitten
There’s no ignoring it. Some of the students enrolled in this medical entomology class are far more attractive than others. They know it, their classmates know it, and so does Susan Paskewitz,...
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