Research and discovery stories

At the vanguard of next-generation precision medicine, Dr. Pamela Becker’s work through the Institute for Stem Cell & Regenerative Medicine is taking aim at cancer.

Recovering from a stroke is an arduous process, but thanks to a group of UW Ph.D. students, virtual reality video games could transform the way patients experience therapy.

For 25 years, the UW’s Thomas G. Thompson has conducted research in nearly every ocean on Earth. This year, the ship is being upgraded to extend its life for another quarter century.

Each summer, aquatic and fishery sciences professor Daniel Schindler and his students travel to Bristol Bay, Alaska to observe one of the most valuable fisheries in the world.

Prehistory, meet Professor Donald Grayson. As featured speaker for this year’s University Faculty Lecture, he digs into the mystery surrounding mass extinctions at the end of the last Ice Age.

Mental health illnesses affect more than 1 billion people, but UW global health professors are tailoring treatments that encourage health — and help.

When psychology major Marissa Pighin was diagnosed with ADHD, her doctor wrote her a prescription and sent her out the door. Now, Pighin is working toward a better treatment at I-LABS, using neurofeedback to help boost reading retention.

Alongside fellow experts, UW professor John Vidale is working toward making the earthquake-prone Pacific Northwest a safer place.

Thanks to a grant from the Department of Energy and strong community partnerships, Ph.D. student Garrett Allawatt is helping engineer a cleaner cookstove for developing countries.

Through the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, Sarah Schooler, ’15, spent six weeks in the Alaskan bush, collecting the same data in the field she’d been studying in the classroom: salmon and the hungry habits of grizzly bears.

UW alumna Susan Harris, ’15, spent a quarter studying everything from orcas to algae on the rocky shores of San Juan Island — right in the Puget Sound’s backyard.

A new study by UW biology professor Samuel Wasser shows that DNA tracing might be the solution to stopping illegal ivory tusk trafficking in Africa, saving elephants from extinction in the process.

Just months after an underwater volcano erupted off the coast of Oregon, a team of researchers, engineers and students set to sea to work on the Ocean Observatories Initiative's seafloor laboratory.

UW astronomer Andrew Connolly is helping transform our knowledge of the universe with the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope — the largest digital camera in the world that aims to answer some of the most fundamental questions in astrophysics.