Why do UW-Madison researchers work with some of the most dangerous substances in nature?

Because our future may depend on their knowledge.

The organisms in Edwin Chapman's lab have the capacity to improve life — or take it away. They are strains of botulism, a powerful neurotoxin that, in small doses, erases wrinkles and alleviates the pain of migraine headaches. But in the wrong hands, this substance could be a lethal weapon.

Working with material such as botulism is a matter of great care, but also pressing urgency. Should one of these biological agents be used maliciously, our best weapon may be our understanding about how these substances work in the body — and how to diffuse their toxic power. And on that front, there is encouraging progress. Researchers are unraveling the genetic secrets of botulism, anthrax and other toxins. This past year, Chapman's lab identified the receptor that allows botulism to infiltrate human cells — a key step toward developing ways to stop its harmful effects.

In the case of botulism, UW–Madison is hardly a new player. Research on the toxin goes back more than three decades. But the university's broad expertise with biological agents has put it at the forefront of the new effort to safeguard the United States and its infrastructure from terrorist threats.

During the past year, UW researchers joined forces with university and government partners to initiate two new research circles funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. One, the Center for Food Protection and Defense, is coordinating work to protect the nation's food supply, including pioneering new technologies developed by UW–Madison engineers. These devices are capable of detecting the presence of contaminating foreign agents in food or alerting handlers if anything has compromised the integrity of its packaging.

The second Homeland Security effort revolves around the difficult work of assessing and evaluating terrorist strategies. Funded by a three-year, $12 million grant, the Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorist Events pulls together engineers, economists and others to evaluate the nation's vulnerability to future terrorist actions — and to come up with strategies to prevent them.

Vicki Bier, a professor of industrial engineering and engineering physics, leads UW–Madison's research circle. Calling on a wide range of experts, she will help determine where terrorists might be likely to strike and what strategies can be taken now to deter them.

"The potential number of terrorist threats is enormous," says Bier. "But we can't defend everything. We must pick and choose where our resources are needed most."

In these ways, research at UW–Madison continues to focus on the future, anticipating needs and working to provide relevant knowledge that is exactly on target and exactly on time.

• UW–Madison's potato research program identified and isolated a gene that protects potatoes against late blight, the disease responsible for the 19th-century potato famine in Ireland and still the cause of widespread crop failures today.
• Researchers demonstrated that scrap tires can be deployed to improve the environmental health of golf courses. Ground up and installed beneath golf greens, the tires absorb excess chemicals from fertilizers and pesticides, preventing them from contaminating the surrounding environment.
• The UW-Madison Center for Nanotechnology pioneered a new approach to manufacturing small-scale electronics that can help lower the cost and improve the control of producing materials at the molecular level, promising a new generation of more powerful computers and data-driven machines.
• Working with an international team of researchers, UW–Madison psychologists traced the genetic roots of depression, identifying a variant in a gene that regulates chemical messengers in the brain that may cause people to be more prone to the mental illness.
• Plant breeders introduced a new cranberry cultivar that promises to help Wisconsin cranberry growers stay competitive. Developed through ten years of research, the berry known as HyRed grows faster and displays more intense color than previously available varieties.
• Research from the School of Human Ecology underscored the importance of "Main Streets" in communities where many elderly citizens live. The studies reveal how communities can be better designed to allow people to stay in their own homes, rather than be compelled to move to assisted-living facilities.