Scientists created comprehensive maps of elusive gene-controlling DNA and a dictionary of the human genome’s programming language
News releases
Most genetic changes linked to more than 400 common diseases affect regions of DNA that dictate when genes are switched on or off. Many of these changes affect circuits active during early human development.
Middle school and high school students from the Yakama Nation will have a chance this weekend to peer into space or learn the basics of rocket flight during a daylong festival with scientists from UW and other institutions.
Double flowers – though beautiful – are mutants. UW biologists have found the class of genes responsible in a plant lineage more ancient than the one previously studied, offering a glimpse even further back into the evolutionary development of flowers.
UW researchers have found that a low dose of the sedative clonazepam alleviated autistic-like behavior in mice with a mutation that causes Dravet syndrome in humans.
A new statistical model predicts that by 2100 the number of people older than 85 worldwide will increase more than previously estimated.
Researchers have discovered molecular and protein signatures that predict rapid onset of liver damage in hepatitis C patients following a liver transplant. The markers appeared soon after transplant and well before clinical evidence of liver damage. Such early detection of susceptibility to hepatitis C virus-induced liver injury could lead to more personalized monitoring and treatment options after a transplant. Also, because the markers stem from an underlying pathology occurring at a very basic level, they might reveal why hepatitis C…
American megachurches use stagecraft, sensory pageantry, charismatic leadership and an upbeat, unchallenging vision of Christianity to provide congregants with a powerful emotional religious experience, according to research from the University of Washington.
A University of Washington scientist has proposed an experiment to test cloud brightening, a geoengineering concept that alters clouds in an effort to counter global warming.
A 2010 national survey of laid-off workers shows married moms spent more time between jobs, were less likely to find new jobs and eventually were paid less than married dads.
Forest searches using specially trained dogs improved the probability of finding spotted owls by nearly 30 percent over traditional vocalization surveys.
University of Washington researchers used some new techniques this year in hopes of improving the accuracy of their annual prediction of the low point of Arctic sea ice.
David Montgomery, a University of Washington geologist, is the author of a new book that explores the long history of religious thinking on matters of geological discovery, particularly flood stories such as the biblical account of Noah’s ark.
Washington state’s housing market continued to improve during the second quarter of 2012 despite a slight drop in existing home sales, according to the Runstad Center for Real Estate Studies at the University of Washington. Existing home sales during the second quarter of 2012 increased 10.4 percent compared with a year ago, however the seasonally adjusted annual rate dropped 2.6 percent from the first quarter. “The market is clearly stronger than a year ago, but it eased off a bit…
UW medical researchers are launching a study to help determine which of the two most common blood product combinations provide the best outcomes for trauma patients who require massive blood transfusions. Dr. Eileen Bulger, UW professor of surgery and chief of trauma at Harborview Medical Center, is the principal investigator for the clinical study. The study will be conducted at 12 Level I trauma centers across the United States, including UW Medicine’s Harborview Medical Center. Bulger and her team will…
Christopher M. Jordan, a first-year law student at the University of Washington, has been selected by Gov. Chris Gregoire as the UW student regent for the coming academic year. Jordan earned a master’s degree in public administration from the UW’s Evans School of Public Affairs in 2012. He also received a bachelor’s degree in political science in 2010. Jordan has worked as an outreach coordinator for the Economic Opportunity Institute and as a legislative intern in the office of Sen….
Researchers have made a major advance in efforts to regenerate damaged hearts. They discovered that transplanted heart muscle cells, grown from stem cells, electrically couple and beat in sync with the heart’s own mucle. The grafts also reduced the incidence of arrhythmias (irregular heart rhythms) in a guinea pig model of myocardial infarction (commonly known as a heart attack). This finding from University of Washington-led research is reported in the Aug. 5 issue of Nature. The paper’s senior author, Dr….
Despite the increasing awareness of the problem of obesity in the United States, most Americans don’t know whether they are gaining or losing weight, according to new research from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, also known at IHME, at the University of Washington. Obesity increased in the U.S. between 2008 and 2009, but in response to the questions about year-to-year changes in weight that were included in the most widespread public health survey in the country, on average,…
Salmon conservation shouldn’t narrowly focus on managing flows in streams and rivers or on preserving only places that currently have strong salmon runs. Instead, watersheds need a good mix of steep, cold-running streams and slower, meandering streams of warmer water to keep options open for salmon adapted to reproduce better in one setting than the other, new research shows. Preserving that sort of varied landscape serves not just salmon, it provides an all-summer buffet that brown bears, gulls and other…
HIV care centers are an important and highly accessed point of care for HIV-infected children and their families in sub-Saharan Africa, but opportunities to address other health issues are being missed. Proven interventions, including routine deworming among children, could be effectively integrated into HIV care according to a new paper by University of Washington researchers published in the journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. The article, “Integration of Deworming into HIV Care and Treatment: A Neglected Opportunity,” estimates that millions of…
When a University of Washington researcher listened to the audio picked up by a recording device that spent a year in the icy waters off the east coast of Greenland, she was stunned at what she heard: whales singing a remarkable variety of songs nearly constantly for five wintertime months. Listen to the bowheads repeat their other-worldly song as they cross the Fram Strait. Bowhead whale song 1 Bowhead whale song 2 Kate Stafford, an oceanographer with UW’s Applied Physics…
Seattle researchers will be part of the new federal initiative to engineer 3-dimensional chips containing living cells and tissues that imitate the structure and function of human organs. These tissue chips will be used for drug safety testing. Tissue chips merge techniques from the computer industry with those from bioengineering by combining miniature models of living organ tissues onto a transparent microchip. Ranging in size from a coin to a house key, the chips are lined with living cells and…
A chemical that temporarily restores some vision to blind mice has been discovered. Its discoverers are working on an improved compound that may someday allow people with degenerative blindness to see again. Read the paper in Neuron News release on earlier study A team of UW Medicine researchers, in collaboration with scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Munich, conducted the study. Their findings appear in the July 26th issue of the journal Neuron. The approach could eventually help those with…
Do you have what it takes to be an ethical hacker? Can you step into the shoes of a professional paid to outsmart supposedly locked-down systems? Now you can at least try, no matter what your background, with a new card game developed by University of Washington computer scientists. “Control-Alt-Hack” gives teenage and young-adult players a taste of what it means to be a computer-security professional defending against an ever-expanding range of digital threats. The game’s creators will present it…
U.S. News latest hospital rankings UW Medicine’s two academic medical centers are ranked the best in the region and the state of Washington in U.S. News & World Report’s 2012 edition of America’s Best Hospitals. UW Medical Center holds the No. 1 rank and Harborview Medical Center is No. 2 out of 35 hospitals in the Seattle metropolitan area and more than 100 hospitals in the state. In addition, UW Medicine’s Valley Medical Center is ranked No. 4 in the metro…
A soils and ecosystem scientist who studies natural resources sustainability has been named the director of the University of Washington’s School of Environmental and Forest Sciences. Thomas H. DeLuca is currently professor of natural resources and geography at Bangor University, Wales, where he holds the chair in environmental sciences sponsored jointly by the university and the U.K.’s National Environmental Research Council. “We couldn’t be happier that Tom will join us to lead the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences. Tom…
In evaluating whether to allow Truvada® to be prescribed for HIV prevention the FDA reviewed evidence from two studies. The largest was conducted by the UWs International Clinical Research Center.
Robert J. Naiman has received the highest award given by the Ecological Society of America, the world’s largest society of professional ecologists.
The UW International Clinical Research Center played a key role in examining Truvada’s effectiveness for HIV prevention. The center’s director Connie Celum talks about the impact of the findings in a Q & A.
UW researchers found that the decline in milk production due to climate change will vary across the U.S., since there are significant differences in humidity and how much the temperature swings between night and day across the country.
Experts have thought that multiracial adolescents use drugs and engage in violence more than their single-race peers. But in a new study, researchers find that mixed-race adolescents are more similar to their white counterparts than previously believed.
ITHS helps scientists accelerate the translation of their discoveries into applications for improving the health of the public. The latest award is for $65 million.
As scientists around the world celebrated the detection of what appears to be the long-sought Higgs boson, University of Washington physicists took satisfaction in knowing they played a significant part in it.
Researchers have long believed that the longer days and calmer seas of spring set off an annual bloom of plants in the North Atlantic, but UW scientists discovered that warm eddies fuel the growth three weeks before the sun does.
In one of the twists of scientific discovery, a UW duo working on fusion energy — harnessing the energy-generating mechanism of the sun — may have found a way to etch the next generation of microchips.
In “Invisible Men: Mass Incarceration and the Myth of Black Progress,” UW sociologist Becky Pettit shows how most surveys overestimate black progress in the United States.
A research team led by the University of Washington and Harvard University has discovered a bigger version of Earth locked in an orbital tug-of-war with a much larger, Neptune-sized planet as they orbit very close to each other around the same star.
Tuberculosis can be a serious threat to monkeys and apes. A test to spot infection might help protect the world’s primate populations.
University of Washington scientists are studying swirling whirlpools in the Sargasso Sea via a pioneering experiment that repeatedly sent profilers deep into the ocean and back to the surface in unison.
Need to do some serious multitasking? Some training in meditation beforehand could make the work smoother and less stressful, new research from the UW Information School shows.