In the wild, chimpanzees face any number of dire threats, ranging from poachers to predators to deforestation. That’s why scientists, investigating an outbreak of respiratory disease in a community of wild chimpanzees in Uganda’s Kibale National Park, were surprised and dismayed to discover that a human “common cold” virus known as rhinovirus C was killing healthy chimps.
Research
Designer molecule points to treatment for diseases caused by DNA repeats
Researchers have designed a molecule that targets short sequences of DNA that repeat many times, including those that cause the rare but fatal disease Friedreich’s ataxia.
Crystallizing science, one protein at a time
It’s square one. It’s step one. It puts the “basic” in basic science. How ever you describe it, understanding protein structure and function through what’s called X-ray crystallography is an important approach in many areas of biochemistry, including drug design. And it’s a technique many researchers in the Department of Biochemistry at UW–Madison specialize in.
Students find passion in labs as Undergraduate Summer Research Scholars
Hannah Poe peers into a large microscope in the Hector F. DeLuca Biochemical Sciences Building, seeing not just florescent molecules of RNA, but also a future career in biochemistry research. Poe is about to start …
Cryo-EM facility coming to department to serve campus researchers
Structural biology and collaboration are two strong and enduring aspects of research at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. In keeping with this tradition, the Department of Biochemistry has led a concerted cross-campus effort to bring cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) to campus.
For some plants, winter carries the keys to spring flowering
What happens to plants as they enter spring? What’s the science that governs the growing season for different plants? Plant biochemist Rick Amasino shares some answers in this Q&A.
Continuing a Legacy: Vitamin D Research in the 21st Century
The legacy of vitamin D research in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin–Madison runs deep — almost as deep as the vitamin’s involvement in a multitude of important processes in the body, …
With designer lignin, biofuels researchers reproduced evolutionary path
A new study shows that poplar trees and many other plants from all over the phylogenetic tree have actually evolved to naturally produce zip-lignin. In other words, not only can we potentially breed for degradability in plants, but humans may have been doing just that – selecting certain plants for easier processing – for thousands of years.
Friesen Lab: Apoptosis is a Potent Antiviral Defense
The Friesen Lab has resolved a twenty-year-long quandary in the field of viral apoptosis by explaining how viruses prevent apoptosis to gain a replicative advantage. Host cell apoptosis effectively stops intracellular parasites like viruses. Baculoviruses, …
Holden Lab: Structual Enzymology of N-formyltransferases
Bacteria produce an astonishingly diverse array of carbohydrate-based macromolecules that serve important physiological roles. The lipopolysaccharide or LPS, for example, is a complex glycoconjugate attached to the outer membranes of Gram-negative bacteria. It is often …