UW-Madison Genetics

Congratulations to Dr Jake Brunkard for winning the CALS Alfred Toepfer Faculty Fellow Award!

Congratulations to Annie Anderson on her CALS Academic Staff excellence award

Genetics professor Chris Hittinger leads a landmark study on evolution, offering a possible answer to one of the oldest questions about evolution: why some species are generalists and others specialists.

These jacks-of-all-trades are masters, too: Yeast study helps answer age-old biology question Researchers mapped the genetic blueprints, appetites, and environments of more than 1,000 species of yeasts, building a family tree that illuminates how these single-celled fungi evolved over the past 400 million years.

Genetics Professor and Chair Francisco Pelegri highlighted in On Wisconsin magazine article

Beyond Jurassic Park | On Wisconsin UW researchers preserve animal DNA for species that face extinction.

Join us on Wednesday for "Reckoning with our history: eugenics in Wisconsin", a talk by Kacie Lucchini Butcher, public historian and director of the Rebecca M. Blank Center for Campus History.

This is the end
Hold your breath and count to ten
One final Nite and then
No more Wednesdays here again
For this is the end
We've come to dread this moment
So long Tom, and farewell
Swept away, we'll miss you

If being the final Wednesday Nite at the Lab is not tempting enough, Fernando will bring us an active learning experience worth remembering.

"The presentation will feature audience participation, through tasting and describing blueberry and cranberry fruit. Lastly, a few of members of the audience will be asked to try a special Vaccinium hybrid fruit and share their experience with the audience."

WN@tL: “Vaccinium Hybrids: The Case for Blueberry by Cranberry Hybridizations” Speaker: Fernando de la Torre, Plant and Agroecosystem Sciences Description: The talk will cover the topic of hybridization within the Vaccinium genus, the history of blueberry and cranberry improvement cycles, as well as what can …

A big hand for Tom Zinnen who officially retired from hosting Wednesday Nite at the Lab on November 1st.

This was a remarkable seminar series that attracted the attention of scientists and non-scientists alike. A real jewel from UW-Madison to the people of Wisconsin.

Thank you Tom!!

https://isthmus.com/events/wednesday-nite-at-the-lab-nov-15/

"A message from Tom Zinnen: I am happy to share that I will retire as of the end of the Q&A session following Scott Coyle’s talk on November 1 at Wednesday Nite @ The Lab. The WN@TL series will continue for two additional weeks beyond that. However, the Division of Extension has decided to pull back the 0.75 FTE that has authorized & funded ¾ of my appointment at the Biotech Center since I started on June 1, 1991. This means that the Biotech Center will not be able to replace my position, and therefore WN@TL will go into indefinite hiatus following the November 15 talk."

A team of researchers including UW-Madison Genetics Professor John Pool analyzed DNA from 200-year-old fruit fly museum specimens. Comparing old and modern DNA helps map the fruit fly's genetic course to new lands, revealing the history of its evolution and distribution.
Learn more at

200-year-old DNA helps map tiny fly’s genetic course to new lands, modern times The humble fruit fly is one of the most thoroughly studied animals on the planet and new insights continue to be revealed about the fly’s evolution thanks to centuries-old DNA.

Genetics professor Ahna Skop and collaborators suggest midbody remnants may promote cancer spread

Remnant of cell division could be responsible for spreading cancer Once thought to be the trash can of the cell, a little bubble of cellular stuff called the midbody remnant is actually packing working genetic material with the power to change the fate of other cells—including turning them into cancer.

"Genetic Symphonies: The Building Hox of Life", the interactive exhibit created by graduate students Katharine Hubert and Sharon Tang was highlighted in InsideUW and WID News.

Read more about the exhibit and the artists behind it at

Genetic Symphonies: The Building Hox of Life The Marie Christine Kohler Fellows are proud to announce the opening of the “Genetic Symphonies: The Building Hox of Life” exhibit, currently located at the UW–Madison Genetics Department. Graduate…

Genetics undergraduate Brenen Skalitzky was featured in the latest InsideUW (https://news.wisc.edu/the-2023-winners-cool-science-image-contest/) as one of the Cool Science Images contest winners.

Brenen previously received the UW–Madison Global Day Photo Contest Winner award for the same picture.

Read more about it at https://genetics.wisc.edu/2023/09/27/eyes-of-the-connection/

Genetics student wins two prestigious photography contests Genetics student Brenen Reid Skalitzky wins two prestigious photography contests for his "Eyes of the Connection" picture.

Graduate students Katharine Hubert and Sharon Tang created a new interactive exhibit on Hox genes!

The exhibit is currently displayed at the Genetics Atrium and invites viewers to engage with the installation through a control podium by using buttons to activate music and lights simultaneously. When the buttons are pressed in the correct order it will simulate the activation of the corresponding Hox gene group on the display panel. Press all 13 buttons correctly, and an elegant symphony will play and reveal a silhouetted human figure in the panel.

Read more at https://genetics.wisc.edu/2023/09/08/interactive-exhibit-on-hox-genes-displayed-at-the-atrium/