So, what is the skinny on trans fats? What are they? Why is this long-time food industry staple on the blacklist now? What will New York City eateries – and the rest of us – use in their place? Are the alternatives really healthier?

Bacteria are a cunning foe; at a worrisome rate, they are developing resistance to the current arsenal of antibiotic drugs. Without new drugs, society may be approaching a world reminiscent of the pre-antibiotic era, when coming down with a bacterial infection was often a matter of life or death.

As he puzzled out why what should have been a routine procedure wouldn’t work, Marcin Filutowicz made a discovery that led to the creation of a new biological tool for destroying bacterial pathogens.

The discovery of a mutant gene in fruit flies will likely provide scientists with a useful model to study neurodegenerative diseases in humans such as […]

After conducting research at Scotland’s Roslin Institute (birthplace of Dolly the cloned sheep) and creating in-vitro models of obesity and Parkinson’s Disease for the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, Gabriela Cezar came to UW-Madison, attracted by the opportunity to use human embryonic stem cells in her research on birth defects and cancer.

Fundamental research about a key step in RNA synthesis has important implications for the study of gene expression in other organisms

Researchers calculate that a $.67 up-size can generate more than $7 in hidden costs over the next year

Writing today in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a University of Wisconsin-Madison bacteriologist reveals that mispaired nucleotides in transfer RNA actually make the molecule more adroit, enhancing its ability to build proteins.

Ever since penicillin, a byproduct of a fungal mold, was discovered in 1929, scientists have scrutinized fungi for other breakthrough drugs. As reported today in The Journal of Chemistry and Biology, a team led by a University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher has developed a new method that may speed the ongoing quest for medically useful compounds in fungi.

Ants that tend and harvest gardens of fungus have a secret weapon against the parasites that invade their crops: antibiotic-producing bacteria that the insects harbor on their bodies.