Wednesday Nite @ the Lab

Ron Stewart, Bioinformatics Team Leader, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation

In the 1980s, genes involved in disease, cancer, and development were studied one gene at time. Now we have the tools available to allow us to study all the genes in the human gene set (about 25,000 genes) at once. The resulting flood of data gives us incredible new insights into stem cell biology, while also presenting difficulties. This talk will emphasize both the challenges and opportunities these new tools have created.

Hannah Carey, Professor, Comparative Biosciences, School of Veterinary Medicine

Hibernating animals undergo remarkable changes in their physiology during the winter months. This presentation will describe the features that characterize hibernation in mammals, and how hibernation biology can lead to new approaches to improve the health of humans and other animals.

Philip Cohen, MD, PhD, University of Wisconsin High School alumnus

One could argue that AIDS/HIV infection is the most important disease in the world today. This talk will review the development from a chronological perspective of our current knowledge about the disease and the epidemic. Cohen will present examples of the kinds of research that have produced this understanding, and that are used to investigate many other medical conditions. The talk is intended for a general audience and will be only minimally technical.

Beverly Gordon; Professor and Department Chairperson; Environment, Textile and Design; SoHE

This illustrated presentation examines many of the meanings of textiles in human life. Textiles matter—from the first swaddling cloth to the final shroud, from the simplest gauze bandage to the costliest fabric used to cement a political alliance, they are central to people in every culture in the world. I will focus here on biologically-related topics such as the role of fiber and cloth in furthering human survival (e.g. nets and ropes in procuring food; tents; applications in modern medicine), and the human story of selected dyestuffs and natural fibers (e.g., intrigues over cochineal or murex [mollusk] dye, which was reserved for royalty; how the cultivation of cotton impacted the slave trade and the imperial takeover of India).