His aim has been to learn more about the interaction of MHC molecules with pathogens. He has learned much about MHC Class I evolution in humans by studying and comparing MHC evolution and types in a variety of peoples, including Caucasians, Orientals, and isolated Amerindian tribes such as the Waoranis, or Aucas, and the Zunis of South America. 

Watkins also directs the HLA and Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory at UW Hospital and Clinics. Here, MHC molecules of transplant donors are matched with recipients for bone marrow, kidney, heart and lung transplants. 

Armed with a wealth of knowledge of MHC evolution and a growing staff of dedicated researchers, Watkins' current goal at the WRPRC is to discover how specific MHC alleles, of which there are hundreds of different types, control immunity and susceptibility to infectious diseases such as AIDS. He is also attempting to understand how some of these gene products regulate the immune response during gestation to result in either a successful pregnancy or a miscarriage. 

As federal funding to fight AIDS and other infectious diseases increases, the Watkins Lab, formerly part of our Center's Reproduction and Development Group, has evolved into our seventh research group, Immunogenetics. A professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at UW-Madison, Watkins became chair of this new group in the fall of 1997. 

"The ability to MHC-type rhesus macaques is key to the successful design of transplant- and vaccine-related projects," says Watkins, who has conducted research at the WRPRC for the past six years. 

"We have recently defined the non-classical MHC class I loci in the rhesus macaque and are now developing, with the Reproduction Group, an animal model to study the immunology of pregnancy." 

This February, Watkins garnered a grant from the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation to define and test vaccines for SIV in pediatric rhesus macaques. And in April, he and his colleague Dee Schramm, Ph.D., earned an AIDS Vaccine Innovation grant to work on generating a genetically defined group of rhesus monkeys for conducting SIV research under more controlled circumstances. 

They will employ both in vitro fertilization and nuclear transfer procedures to achieve this end. They also have twenty breeding pairs to generate MHC-identical pairs of rhesus macaques for SIV vaccination studies. The grant provides additional funding to define cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) minimal epitopes in SIV. 

Finally, they will use the MHC and other genetic loci to assess relatedness and prevent inbreeding in our center's research colony. "Our overall mission is to improve the animal resource at the WRPRC for use in biomedical research to understand the immune response to important pathogens that infect humans," Watkins says. 

In addition to intensive collaboration with our Reproduction and Development Group, chaired by Ted Golos, Ph.D., Watkins' team works closely with our Immunology and Virology Research Group, chaired by C. David Pauza, Ph.D. 

"If we can discover why SIV progresses more slowly in some rhesus monkeys and more quickly in others, as related to differences in the MHC class I molecule, we can then determine factors that may be important in resistance to the AIDS virus," Watkins says. 

Watkins also intends to collaborate extensively with our Aging and Metabolic Diseases Group, co-chaired by Joseph Kemnitz and Rick Weindruch, Ph.D.'s, to understand how aging and dietary restriction might affect an individual's response to important pathogens such as influenza. 

The Immunogenetics Group has undergone rapid growth. Its current roster of researchers includes trainees David Evans, Helen Horton, Rachel Kravitz, Bill Rehrauer, and Thorsten Vogel, all Ph.D's. Research specialists are Marian Piekarczyk, John Venham, Peicheng Jing, Christopher Murvine, Kevin Schwartz, Rudi Ruddersdorf and Susan Steffen. Graduate students are Todd Allen, Julie Urvater, Seon-Kyeong Kim, Deb Fuller, David O'Connor and Brianna Calore. Leslie Knapp, Ph.D., and post-doctoral trainee Jon Boyson, Ph.D., departed for Cambridge (UK) and Harvard Universities, respectively, in 1997-98. 

This year, the Immunogenetics Group was lucky to welcome Robert DeMars, Ph.D., as a consultant. After a distinguished career in the Genetics Department at the UW, DeMars has retired and will lend his considerable knowledge and expertise to the group. "Dr. DeMars is perhaps one of the most talented immunogeneticists in the world," says Watkins. "Among his most significant contributions was the generation of a series of mutant cell lines which have proved to be central to the unravelling of many aspects of antigen processing." 

The group's latest work is summarized after this story and largely involves furthering the rhesus monkey model for SIV studies. Watkins and colleagues have already made several significant accomplishments involving MHC typing in the rhesus macaque (Watkins 1994, 1995; Boyson et al., 1995, 1996a, 1996b and 1997). They published the first PCR-SSP method for typing MHC class I alleles in this species (Knapp et al., 1997), and also published a technique for MHC class II typing (Knapp et al., 1996). Most recently, they have defined an important CTL epitope in SIV, bound by the rhesus macaque MHC class I molecule Mamu-A*01. 

Future directions address improving techniques for MHC typing; specifically to develop a PCR-SSP plate for rhesus MHC class I and II alleles, to perform direct sequence-based typing for rhesus MHC class I and II alleles, to define all non-classical MHC class I loci and products in the rhesus monkey, and to MHC-type all breeding animals at the center. In addition, Watkins' group aims to define CTL and helper T lymphocyte (HTL) epitopes and their restricting MHC molecules in SIV, as well as to produce, with Dee Schramm, the MHC-defined and MHC-defined, MHC-identical pairs of rhesus macaques. 
 

Immunogenetics Research Group: Current projects

Collaborations with:
 

Selected recent publications

Allen, T.M., J. Sidney, M-F. del Guercio, E. Lehman, R.L. Glickman, G.L. Lensmeyer, D.A. Wiebe, C.D. Pauza, R.P. Johnson, A. Sette, and D.I. Watkins. 1998. Characterization of the peptide binding motif of a rhesus MHC class I molecule (Mamu-A*01) that binds an immunodominant CTL epitope from SIV. J Immunol. 160:6062-6071. 

Boyson, J.E., K.K. Iwanaga, T.G. Golos, and D.I. Watkins. 1997. Identification of a novel MHC class I gene, Mamu-AG, expressed in the placenta of a primate with an inactivated G locus. J. Immunol. 159(7):3311-3321. 

Cadavid, L.F., C. Shufflebotham, F.J. Ruiz, M. Yeager, A.L. Hughes, and D.I. Watkins. 1997. Evolutionary instability of the major histocompatibility complex class I loci in New World primates. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 94:14536-14541. 

Evans, D.T., M.S. Piekarczyk, T.M. Allen, J.E. Boyson, M. Yeager, A.L. Hughes, F.M. Gotch, V.S. Hinshaw, and D.I. Watkins. 1997. Immunodominance of a single CTL epitope in a primate species with limited MHC class I polymorphism. J. Immunol. 159(3):1374-1382. 

Knapp, L.A., L.F. Cadavid, M.E. Eberle, S.J. Knechtle, R.E. Bontrop, and D.I. Watkins 1997. Identification of novel Mamu-DRB alleles using DGGE and direct sequencing. Immunogenetics. 45:171-179. 

Knapp, L.A., E. Lehmann, M.S. Piekarczyk, J.A. Urvater, and D.I. Watkins. 1997. A high frequency of Mamu-A*01 in the rhesus macaque detected by polymerase chain reaction with sequence-specific primers and direct sequencing. Tissue Antigens. 50:657-661. 

Knapp, L.A., L.F. Cadavid, and D.I. Watkins. 1998. The MHC-E locus is the most ancient and well-conserved of all known primate class I histocompatibility genes. J. Immunol. 160:189-196. 

Kuroda, M.C., J.E. Schmitz, D.H. Barouch, A. Craiu, T.M. Allen, A. Sette, D.I. Watkins, M.A. Forman, and N.L. Letvin. 1998. Analysis of gag-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes in SIVmac-infected rhesus monkeys by cell staining with a tetrameric MHC Class I/peptide complex. J. Exp. Med. 187; 1373-1381. End of an era 
 

Zoo rhesus and stumptails head south

The Tulane Regional Primate Research Center agreed to adopt the rhesus monkeys and use them for breeding or, if unsuitable for breeding, in accordance with federal regulations governing research with animals. The monkeys arrived at the TRPRC in good health on March 5 and were introduced into outdoor enclosures in their original family groups after 90 days of quarantine. 

At press time, the stumptails were slated to go to the Wild Animal Orphanage in San Antonio, Texas, later this summer. They will live in their family group in a large enclosure built by sanctuary staff with funds from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 

More on the zoo facility appears at: http://www.primate.wisc.edu/WRPRC/news/history.html. 

Primate Center hosts Stem Cell Workshop 

The event, organized by James Thomson, V.M.D., Ph.D., and Jill Carrington, Ph.D. (NCRR), with assistance by Edith Chan, featured speakers from U.S. and European universities, hospitals and other institutions conducting ES cell research with animals. Such research is helping to lift the veil off a long-hidden face of reproductive research-the earliest events in embryo growth and development and exactly how cells and the genes they contain are preprogrammed from day one to be normal or defective. 

Following introductions by WRPRC Interim Director Joseph Kemnitz, Ph.D., UW Graduate School Dean Virginia Hin-shaw, Ph.D., and NCRR Director Judith Vaitukaitis, M.D., Austin Smith, Ph.D., of the University of Edinburgh, Scot-land, gave the keynote address on the research and medical potentials of totipotent ES cells. Thomson followed with slides of rhesus monkey embryonic stem cells transplanted into immunocompromised mice. In 1995, Thomson became the first to sustain the growth of undifferentiated, nonhuman primate ES cells in vitro. He is now studying how they evolve into neural, bone, muscle, and blood lines in vivo. 

Commenting on Thomson's slides, Roger Pederson, Ph.D., of the University of California, San Francisco, said, "The rhesus ES cells growing in mice are the most remarkably organized teratomas I've ever seen." Pederson later discussed the over-expression of transcription factors in mouse ES cells. He emphasized the need to learn what factors induce axial development of pluripotent ES cells in the embryo, so that researchers could grow intact embryos instead of embryo-like masses in vitro for mouse research. 

Robert Gendron, Ph.D., of the Children's Hospital Medical Center, who spoke on vascular differentiation, and Gordon Keller, Ph.D., of the National Jewish Medical and Research Center, whose topic was hematopoetic differentiation, were among several participants who stressed the need to develop better vectors for delivering disease-fighting or defect-repairing genes into immortal ES cell lines. 

"We can all clone genes, but what do they do?" Keller posed. "We need to get someone who knows vectorology. This is a major bottleneck." 

For example, retrovirus vectors could be used to "infect" ES cells with genetic material proven to have some resistance against HIV. The cells could then be somehow directed into becoming blood cells and theoretically be transplanted into patients and give rise to more HIV-resistant cells. The challenge would be to render the retrovirus incapable of causing disease but still able to introduce therapeutic genetic material into the cell. 

ES cells might also be used to treat degenerative diseases. "If we could find a way to transplant ES cells to grow and differentiate into healthy cells, or ultimately whole organs, that a patient needs, these cells could then replace defective cells such as those that cause Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, Huntington's and other diseases," said Neal First, Ph.D., UW-Madison scientist who has produced the world's first cloned cattle through ES cell nuclear transfer. 

Compared to tweaking a genetically reactivated mature mammary cell to clone an adult sheep, cloning an eight-cell embryo is easier, but still no mean feat. The Oregon Regional Primate Research Center succeeded with this difficult and time-consuming procedure in March, 1997. We will soon attempt the procedure to produce genetically similar animals for more controlled research. (See Immunogenetics story this issue.) 

ES cells might also be used to further study the largely unexplored frontier of neural lineages. "For example," said David Gottlieb, Ph.D., of the Washington University School of Medicine. "how are synapses able to release transmitters? How are the domains of nerve cells set up? What are the genetic triggers? ES cells can help us design mutations to study these questions. We can learn more about genes and early development and their role when things go wrong." 

Other workshop speakers included David Barnes, Ph.D., Oregon State University (zebrafish ES cells); Bertrand Pain, Ph.D., Ecole Normale Superieure (avian ES cells); James Robl, Ph.D., University of Massachusetts (somatic cell cloning and ES cells in cattle); Richard Schultz, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania (reprogramming of gene expression in the preimplantation mouse embryo); Barbara Panning, Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (ES cells as model for studying X-inactivation) Woodring Wright, M.D., Ph.D., University of Texas Southwest Medical Center (telomerase and the control of cellular senescence), Loren Field, Ph.D., Indiana University-Purdue University (cardiomyocyte differentiation and transplantation), and Susan Smith, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin (retinoids and differentiation). 

NIH officials attending the workshop expressed optimism for continued funding of ES cell research. In addition to biomedical therapies, its potential applications could include livestock engineering and food production. 

For more information on the workshop, please contact Edith Chan at (608) 263-3500. For more on embryonic stem cells, see the UW-Madison's Why Files at: http://whyfiles.news.wisc.edu/shorties/stem_cell.html. 

Recent WRPRC publications:

Thomson, J.A., and V.S. Marshall. 1998. Primate Embryonic Stem Cells. Curr. Top. Dev. Biol. 38:133-165. 

Thomson, J.A., V.S. Marshall, and J.Q. Trojanowski. 1998. Neural differentiation of rhesus embryonic stem cells. APMIS. 106(1):149-156. 

Thomson, J.A., J. Kalishman, T.G. Golos, M. Durning, C.P. Harris, R.A. Becker, and J.P. Hearn. 1995. Isolation of a primate embryonic stem cell line. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 92:7844-7848. 

Field notes: China collaboration off to a strong start 

Four years ago, the director of China's Kunming Institute of Zoology (KIZ) selected a UW-Madison lab to train Chinese scientists in embryo research. Since then, Weizhi Ji, Ph.D., and Barry Bavister, Ph.D., of our Reproduction and Development Group, have been working on a unique joint venture. 

"Our objective," says Bavister, "is to instruct KIZ scientists in experimental embryology and embryo harvesting techniques using nonhuman primate gametes and embryos, to further our knowledge of embryo development." 

Bavister, a UW professor of animal health and biomedical sciences, has been with the WRPRC since 1979. He began, and continues to work with rodent, cattle and nonhuman primate embryos. His lab introduced to the world its first in-vitro fertilized monkey, Petri, in 1983. Petri still resides at our Center and has naturally sired several healthy children and grandchildren. But since his birth, research to further knowledge of embryo development and genetics in nonhuman primates has been very slow due to the low availability of monkey ova. 

To help solve this problem, Bavister and Ji began training technicians and scientific staff at the KIZ, as well as here in Maidson, in 1997. At a workshop last year in Kunming, Bavister and his colleagues instructed Chinese graduate students and post-docs in basic cell biology and embryology, as well as in nutrition, artificial insemination and ultrasound diagnostic techniques. Trainees also explored in-vitro fertilization, embryo culture and embryo transfer techniques. Because of the workshop's success, an international workshop is now being planned for 1999. Participants will be from China, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, India, and Thailand, Bavister says. 

"Both centers will benefit from this collaboration," he says. "Dr. Ji wants to focus on the reproduction and study of oocytes from endangered Asian animals and our training will help him accomplish this goal. And we want to improve our techniques for blastocyst productin. The KIZ is well equipped for this because of its large colony of rhesus monkeys and they have already had some success in blastocyst production." 

Dee Schramm, Ph.D., visited KIZ last year to instruct the Chinese scientists in blastocyst production techniques. Another goal of Bavister's is to help the KIZ harvest more oocytes from its monkeys. "The Institute's 1,000 rhesus monkeys are fully available for our research," Bavister remarks. 

Ji and Bavister aim to produce in-vitro embryos. Supplies of cryopreserved pre-implantation embryos could go to U.S. labs. "Mass production of frozen embryos could greatly advance medical progress," Bavister foresees. "We know a lot about mouse embryos, but very little about primates because there haven't been enough embryos to study. We could greatly advance research in genetics and development with a greater worldwide supply of embryos." 

Bavister and Ji also aim to to improve techniques for freezing oocytes. (Currently, only frozen embryos remain viable, not unfertilized eggs.) Advanced monkey reproduction techniques and being able to store eggs for use during noncycling months will improve access to ova. 

Although Bavister has many long-term goals to fulfill, the major achievement so far has been the establishment of this unique collaboration across the miles, and the raising of training standards in China. This has led to the establishment of a formal collaborative agreement between the Chinese Academy of Sciences and UW-Madison. 

A high-energy researcher, instructor and collaborator, Bavister is simultaneously working on enhancing our Caribbean connection at Sabana Seca, Puerto Rico, working through an existing primate facility there. The grant review process for this effort is almost complete. Bavister would like to recruit minority students and encourage them to pursue studies at UW-Madison. 

Meanwhile, his next trip to Kunming is scheduled for 1999. "This collaboration will greatly advance reproduction research practices as we know them," he says emphatically. 

Hideo Uno, Adrienne Cappas retire in August:

Farewell to our friends of the follicle

Because stumptails exhibit this type of hair loss beginning at about age 4, Uno saw them as perfect study models. He and Cappas applied a solution containing 5 percent minoxidil only to the monkeys foreheads, versus administering it as a pill. Some people taking the heart pill were growing more hair all over. This surprising side effect led others to use the pill just for hair growth. Physicians became concerned that this underground use of a heart drug would lead to other risks besides the "werewolf" effect. 

So Uno's work, supported by Upjohn, helped spur the development of the approved growth stimulator, Rogaine. Uno and Cappas continued to dab minoxidil onto stumptail scalps for years afterwards. They wanted to make sure that direct application remained effective in primates over the long term and had no detrimental side effects. Through a recent Merck grant, Uno also contributed to the development of Propecia, the new prescription antiandrogen stimulator for hair growth. 

Cappas, who has worked at the Primate Center since 1961, began our center's histopathology lab. She also worked with James Allen, D.V.M., Ph.D., on PCB studies with rats and monkeys in the 1970s. She joined Uno's lab in 1979. 

"Without her, I could not have done anything," says Uno. "She organized the studies, painted the monkeys' foreheads, and trained staff. She knows all the monkeys and they know her." 

Uno began developing the stumptailed macaque as a model for human baldness while he was on the scientific staff at the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center, from 1966 to 1968 and 1970 to 1979. Over the next decade, while furthering these studies at Wisconsin, he also led the WRPRC's pathology division. He was in charge of necropsy services and conducted structural and biochemical studies aimed at localizing neurotransmitters and neurohormones in the hypothalamic-pituitary axis of primates. 

Uno earned his professional degrees from Yokohama City University in Japan. He served as an associate professor and acting chair in the university's pathology department from 1968 to 1970. He has held numerous attending, teaching and consulting positions, been a prolific author and a journal and grant reviewer for 15 national scientific associations, and has participated in dozens of workshops and symposiums on hair growth, dermatology, simian AIDS, stress and aging. His joint appointments at the UW-Madison were as WRPRC senior scientist and as adjunct professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. 

 friends, and then, five years later, got married. Joan Scheffler's continuing duties at the center included working for her new husband. "Yet the marriage survived," Joan quips. She is now in charge of Clinical Pathology Services.&nbsp; <p>Scheffler plans to spend more time at their "northern retreat" in St. Germain, Wisconsin. He is an avid outdoorsman who enjoys deer and goose hunting, fishing, and camping. For many years, he and his father George hunted with friends in the Colorado Rockies, complete with taking pack horses up into the mountains and pitching tents in the snow.&nbsp; <p>"Guenther is very observant and appreciative of nature," says Joan. "He loves to be outside during all seasons, in all kinds of weather, and plans to enjoy even more of the outdoors now that he's retired."&nbsp;</td> </tr> </table> <hr WIDTH="100%"> <table COLS=1 WIDTH="75%" > <tr> <td><a NAME="Gleanings"></a><b><font size=+2>Gleanings</font></b> <p>The following "Gleanings" are from our electronic newsletter, Primate Pulse. For more information, contact Jordana Lenon, (608) 263-7024, jlenon@primate.wisc.edu.&nbsp; <p><b><i>Grants and awards</i></b> <br>Wendy Saltzman, David Abbott, Neil Binkley, Joe Kemnitz, Ph.D.s, and Ricki Colman have earned an NIH-NIA grant to study absence of estrogen-depletion bone loss in common marmosets.&nbsp; <p>The UW-Madison Medical School Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences has earned the Glaucoma Research Foundation's Center of Excellence Award. Honorees conducting research at the WRPRC include James VerHoeve, Ph.D., and Paul Kaufman, M.D., who directs the UW glaucoma team. (See <a href="http://www.wisc.edu/news/thisweek/Awards/Y98/jun/glaucoma.html">http://www.wisc.edu/news/thisweek/Awards/Y98/jun/glaucoma.html</a>.)&nbsp; <p>Ei Terasawa, Ph.D., has received an NIH-NIA grant to study aging of the neuroendocrine hypothalamus.&nbsp; <p>Ze Huang, M.D., has earned a UW Academic Staff Professional Development grant for training on molecular analysis of multi-specific genes in insulin signal transduction.&nbsp; <p><b><i>Appointments&nbsp;</i></b> <br>Theresa Duello, Ph.D., has been appointed to the Endocrine Society's Minority Affairs Committee and Short Course Program Speakers Bureau.&nbsp; <p>Nellie Laughlin, Ph.D., has accepted a three-year term as a council member of the Midwestern Psychological Association, and a three-year term on Neurobehavioral Toxicology and Teratology editorial board.&nbsp; <p>Chuck Snowdon, Ph.D., has been named a UW-Madison Hilldale Professor. This elite award is given to those who "excel in scholarly activity with records of outstanding research and a promise of continued productivity."&nbsp; <p>Ei Terasawa, Ph.D., has been appointed a council member of the International Society of Neuroendocrinology for a four-year term.&nbsp; <p><b><i>New staff&nbsp;</i></b> <br>Chuck Bishop, Business Office, March 30.&nbsp; <br>Steve Jacoris, B.A., M.A., associate research specialist, Assay Services Unit, June 1. <br>Eva G. Rakasz, Ph.D., assistant scientist and program director, Immunology and Virology Core&nbsp; <br>&nbsp;&nbsp; Lab, March 2.&nbsp; <br>Maria Theresa Zayas, B.S., associate research specialist, Immunology and Virology Core&nbsp; <br>&nbsp;&nbsp; Laboratory, June 1. .</td> </tr> </table> <hr WIDTH="100%"> <br><a NAME="Newsletter contact information"></a>This is the text-only, electronic version of Centerline, which is published quarterly by the Wisconsin Regional Primate Research Center, 1220 Capitol Court, Madison, WI 53715-1299. This newsletter provides updates on scientific research and supporting activities funded by the National Institutes of Health, National Center for Research Resources. We welcome enquiries about our research programs in primate biomedicine and conservation. We can also provide references for scientific papers or other information concerning topics addressed in this newsletter. Please send correspondence to: <p><a href="mailto:jlenon@primate.wisc.edu">Jordana Lenon, Editor</a> <br>Wisconsin Regional Primate Research Center <br>1220 Capitol Court <br>Madison, WI 53715-1299 <br>Telephone (608)263-7024 <br>FAX (608)263-4031 <br>E-mail: jlenon@primate.wisc.edu <p><img SRC="globe.gif" height=20 width=20> <a href="http://www.primate.wisc.edu/">Return to WRPRC Home Page</a> <p><img SRC="globe.gif" height=20 width=20> <a href="#Top">Return to top</a> <br>&nbsp; <p>Copyright 1998. Wisconsin Regional Primate Research Center </body> </html> Centerline. 

e the first to sustain the growth of undifferentiated, nonhuman primate ES cells <i>in vitro</i>. He is now studying how they evolve into neural, bone, muscle, and blood lines <i>in vivo</i>.&nbsp; <p>Commenting on Thomson's slides, Roger Pederson, Ph.D., of the University of California, San Francisco, said, "The rhesus ES cells growing in mice are the most remarkably organized teratomas I've ever seen." Pederson later discussed the over-expression of transcription factors in mouse ES cells. He emphasized the need to learn what factors induce axial development of pluripotent ES cells in the embryo, so that researchers could grow intact embryos instead of embryo-like masses <i>in vitro</i> for mouse research.&nbsp; <p>Robert Gendron, Ph.D., of the Children's Hospital Medical Center, who spoke on vascular differentiation, and Gordon Keller, Ph.D., of the National Jewish Medical and Research Center, whose topic was hematopoetic differentiation, were among several participants who stressed the need to develop better vectors for delivering disease-fighting or defect-repairing genes into immortal ES cell lines.&nbsp; <p>"We can all clone genes, but what do they do?" Keller posed. "We need to get someone who knows vectorology. This is a major bottleneck."&nbsp; <p>For example, retrovirus vectors could be used to "infect" ES cells with genetic material proven to have some resistance against HIV. The cells could then be somehow directed into becoming blood cells and theoretically be transplanted into patients and give rise to more HIV-resistant cells. The challenge would be to render the retrovirus incapable of causing disease but still able to introduce therapeutic genetic material into the cell.&nbsp; <p>ES cells might also be used to treat degenerative diseases. "If we could find a way to transplant ES cells to grow and differentiate into healthy cells, or ultimately whole organs, that a patient needs, these cells could then replace defective cells such as those that cause Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, Huntington's and other diseases," said Neal First, Ph.D., UW-Madison scientist who has produced the world's first cloned cattle through ES cell nuclear transfer.&nbsp; <p>Compared to tweaking a genetically reactivated mature mammary cell to clone an adult sheep, cloning an eight-cell embryo is easier, but still no mean feat. The Oregon Regional Primate Research Center succeeded with this difficult and time-consuming procedure in March, 1997. We will soon attempt the procedure to produce genetically similar animals for more controlled research. (See Immunogenetics story this issue.)&nbsp; <p>ES cells might also be used to further study the largely unexplored frontier of neural lineages. "For example," said David Gottlieb, Ph.D., of the Washington University School of Medicine. "how are synapses able to release transmitters? How are the domains of nerve cells set up? What are the genetic triggers? ES cells can help us design mutations to study these questions. We can learn more about genes and early development and their role when things go wrong."&nbsp; <p>Other workshop speakers included David Barnes, Ph.D., Oregon State University (zebrafish ES cells); Bertrand Pain, Ph.D., Ecole Normale Superieure (avian ES cells); James Robl, Ph.D., University of Massachusetts (somatic cell cloning and ES cells in cattle); Richard Schultz, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania (reprogramming of gene expression in the preimplantation mouse embryo); Barbara Panning, Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (ES cells as model for studying X-inactivation) Woodring Wright, M.D., Ph.D., University of Texas Southwest Medical Center (telomerase and the control of cellular senescence), Loren Field, Ph.D., Indiana University-Purdue University (cardiomyocyte differentiation and transplantation), and Susan Smith, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin (retinoids and differentiation).&nbsp; <p>NIH officials attending the workshop expressed optimism for continued funding of ES cell research. In addition to biomedical therapies, its potential applications could include livestock engineering and food production.&nbsp; <p>For more information on the workshop, please contact Edith Chan at (608) 263-3500. For more on embryonic stem cells, see the UW-Madison's Why Files at: http://whyfiles.news.wisc.edu/shorties/stem_cell.html.&nbsp; <p><b><i>Recent WRPRC publications:</i></b> <p>Thomson, J.A., and V.S. Marshall. 1998. Primate Embryonic Stem Cells. Curr. Top. Dev. Biol. 38:133-165.&nbsp; <p>Thomson, J.A., V.S. Marshall, and J.Q. Trojanowski. 1998. Neural differentiation of rhesus embryonic stem cells. APMIS. 106(1):149-156.&nbsp; <p>Thomson, J.A., J. Kalishman, T.G. Golos, M. Durning, C.P. Harris, R.A. Becker, and J.P. Hearn. 1995. Isolation of a primate embryonic stem cell line. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 92:7844-7848.&nbsp;</td> </tr> </table> <hr WIDTH="100%"> <br><img SRC="globe.gif" height=20 width=20> <a href="#Top">Return to top</a> <br> <hr WIDTH="100%"> <table CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 WIDTH="75%" > <tr> <td> <h2> <a NAME="Field notes: China collaboration off to a strong start"></a>Field notes: China collaboration off to a strong start&nbsp;</h2> <i>By Rebecca Martin, editorial intern</i> <p>Four years ago, the director of China's Kunming Institute of Zoology (KIZ) selected a UW-Madison lab to train Chinese scientists in embryo research. Since then, Weizhi Ji, Ph.D., and Barry Bavister, Ph.D., of our Reproduction and Development Group, have been working on a unique joint venture.&nbsp; <p>"Our objective," says Bavister, "is to instruct KIZ scientists in experimental embryology and embryo harvesting techniques using nonhuman primate gametes and embryos, to further our knowledge of embryo development."&nbsp; <p>Bavister, a UW professor of animal health and biomedical sciences, has been with the WRPRC since 1979. He began, and continues to work with rodent, cattle and nonhuman primate embryos. His lab introduced to the world its first in-vitro fertilized monkey, Petri, in 1983. Petri still resides at our Center and has naturally sired several healthy children and grandchildren. But since his birth, research to further knowledge of embryo development and genetics in nonhuman primates has been very slow due to the low availability of monkey ova.&nbsp; <p>To help solve this problem, Bavister and Ji began training technicians and scientific staff at the KIZ, as well as here in Maidson, in 1997. At a workshop last year in Kunming, Bavister and his colleagues instructed Chinese graduate students and post-docs in basic cell biology and embryology, as well as in nutrition, artificial insemination and ultrasound diagnostic techniques. Trainees also explored in-vitro fertilization, embryo culture and embryo transfer techniques. Because of the workshop's success, an international workshop is now being planned for 1999. Participants will be from China, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, India, and Thailand, Bavister says.&nbsp; <p>"Both centers will benefit from this collaboration," he says. "Dr. Ji wants to focus on the reproduction and study of oocytes from endangered Asian animals and our training will help him accomplish this goal. And we want to improve our techniques for blastocyst productin. The KIZ is well equipped for this because of its large colony of rhesus monkeys and they have already had some success in blastocyst production."&nbsp; <p>Dee Schramm, Ph.D., visited KIZ last year to instruct the Chinese scientists in blastocyst production techniques. Another goal of Bavister's is to help the KIZ harvest more oocytes from its monkeys. "The Institute's 1,000 rhesus monkeys are fully available for our research," Bavister remarks.&nbsp; <p>Ji and Bavister aim to produce in-vitro embryos. Supplies of cryopreserved pre-implantation embryos could go to U.S. labs. "Mass production of frozen embryos could greatly advance medical progress," Bavister foresees. "We know a lot about mouse embryos, but very little about primates because there haven't been enough embryos to study. We could greatly advance research in genetics and development with a greater worldwide supply of embryos."&nbsp; <p>Bavister and Ji also aim to to improve techniques for freezing oocytes. (Currently, only frozen embryos remain viable, not unfertilized eggs.) Advanced monkey reproduction techniques and being able to store eggs for use during noncycling months will improve access to ova.&nbsp; <p>Although Bavister has many long-term goals to fulfill, the major achievement so far has been the establishment of this unique collaboration across the miles, and the raising of training standards in China. This has led to the establishment of a formal collaborative agreement between the Chinese Academy of Sciences and UW-Madison.&nbsp; <p>A high-energy researcher, instructor and collaborator, Bavister is simultaneously working on enhancing our Caribbean connection at Sabana Seca, Puerto Rico, working through an existing primate facility there. The grant review process for this effort is almost complete. Bavister would like to recruit minority students and encourage them to pursue studies at UW-Madison.&nbsp; <p>Meanwhile, his next trip to Kunming is scheduled for 1999. "This collaboration will greatly advance reproduction research practices as we know them," he says emphatically.&nbsp;</td> </tr> </table> <hr WIDTH="100%"> <br><img SRC="globe.gif" height=20 width=20> <a href="#Top">Return to top</a> <br> <hr WIDTH="100%"> <table CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 WIDTH="75%" > <tr> <td> <h3> <i>Hideo Uno, Adrienne Cappas retire in August:</i></h3> <h2> <a NAME="Farewell to our friends of the follicle"></a>Farewell to our friends of the follicle</h2> In 1982, Hideo Uno, M.D., Ph.D., and Adrienne Cappas, M.T., began demonstrating how minoxodil, a hypertension-turned-hair-growth drug, succeeded in reversing male pattern baldness by increasing the size of hair follicles and stimulating the growth of thicker, darker hair.&nbsp; <p>Because stumptails exhibit this type of hair loss beginning at about age 4, Uno saw them as perfect study models. He and Cappas applied a solution containing 5 percent minoxidil only to the monkeys foreheads, versus administering it as a pill. Some people taking the heart pill were growing more hair all over. This surprising side effect led others to use the pill just for hair growth. Physicians became concerned that this underground use of a heart drug would lead to other risks besides the "werewolf" effect.&nbsp; <p>So Uno's work, supported by Upjohn, helped spur the development of the approved growth stimulator, Rogaine. Uno and Cappas continued to dab minoxidil onto stumptail scalps for years afterwards. They wanted to make sure that direct application remained effective in primates over the long term and had no detrimental side effects. Through a recent Merck grant, Uno also contributed to the development of Propecia, the new prescription antiandrogen stimulator for hair growth.&nbsp; <p>Cappas, who has worked at the Primate Center since 1961, began our center's histopathology lab. She also worked with James Allen, D.V.M., Ph.D., on PCB studies with rats and monkeys in the 1970s. She joined Uno's lab in 1979.&nbsp; <p>"Without her, I could not have done anything," says Uno. "She organized the studies, painted the monkeys' foreheads, and trained staff. She knows all the monkeys and they know her."&nbsp; <p>Uno began developing the stumptailed macaque as a model for human baldness while he was on the scientific staff at the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center, from 1966 to 1968 and 1970 to 1979. Over the next decade, while furthering these studies at Wisconsin, he also led the WRPRC's pathology division. He was in charge of necropsy services and conducted structural and biochemical studies aimed at localizing neurotransmitters and neurohormones in the hypothalamic-pituitary axis of primates.&nbsp; <p>Uno earned his professional degrees from Yokohama City University in Japan. He served as an associate professor and acting chair in the university's pathology department from 1968 to 1970. He has held numerous attending, teaching and consulting positions, been a prolific author and a journal and grant reviewer for 15 national scientific associations, and has participated in dozens of workshops and symposiums on hair growth, dermatology, simian AIDS, stress and aging. His joint appointments at the UW-Madison were as WRPRC senior scientist and as adjunct professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.&nbsp; <p>ering it as a pill. Some people taking the heart pill were growing more hair all over. This surprising side effect led others to use the pill just for hair growth. Physicians became concerned that this underground use of a heart drug would lead to other risks besides the "werewolf" effect.&amp;nbsp; &lt;p>So Uno's work, supported by Upjohn, helped spur the development of the approved growth stimulator, Rogaine. Uno and Cappas continued to dab minoxidil onto stumptail scalps for years afterwards. They wanted to make sure that direct application remained effective in primates over the long term and had no detrimental side effects. Through a recent Merck grant, Uno also contributed to the development of Propecia, the new prescription antiandrogen stimulator for hair growth.&amp;nbsp; &lt;p>Cappas, who has worked at the Primate Center since 1961, began our center's histopathology lab. She also worked with James Allen, D.V.M., Ph.D., on PCB studies with rats and monkeys in the 1970s. She joined Uno's lab in 1979.&amp;nbsp; &lt;p>"Without her, I could not have done anything," says Uno. "She organized the studies, painted the monkeys' foreheads, and trained staff. She knows all the monkeys and they know her."&amp;nbsp; &lt;p>Uno began developing the stumptailed macaque as a model for human baldness while he was on the scientific staff at the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center, from 1966 to 1968 and 1970 to 1979. Over the next decade, while furthering these studies at Wisconsin, he also led the WRPRC's pathology division. He was in charge of necropsy services and conducted structural and biochemical studies aimed at localizing neurotransmitters and neurohormones in the hypothalamic-pituitary axis of primates.&amp;nbsp; &lt;p>Uno earned his professional degrees from Yokohama City University in Japan. He served as an associate professor and acting chair in the university's pathology department from 1968 to 1970. He has held numerous attending, teaching and consulting positions, been a prolific author and a journal and grant reviewer for 15 national scientific associations, and has participated in dozens of workshops and symposiums on hair growth, dermatology, simian AIDS, stress and aging. His joint appointments at the UW-Madison were as WRPRC senior scientist and as adjunct professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.&amp;nbsp; &lt;p><i>Centerline</i>.&nbsp; <p>eed and select for vaccine studies MHC-defined animals at the Ne<a href="http://www.wisc.edu/news/thisweek/Research/Bio/Y98/colon.html">http://www.wisc.edu/news/thisweek/Research/Bio/Y98/colon.html</a>.)&nbsp; <p>On leaving Madison, Uno says he will greatly miss his friends and colleagues and the UW itself. He'll also miss the variety of performing arts venues the Madison area has had to offer over the past 20 years. Uno owns an extensive classical music audiovisual collection and played cello in local string quartets here for many years. He hopes to relish more of the same when he and his wife Shoko, retired recently from the Preschool of the Arts in Madison, return to Oregon. They have bought a new house in West Linn, near Portland. They also plan to spend more time with their son Takeshi, his wife Vicki, one-year-old granddaughter Melanie, and their daughter Yayoi.&nbsp; <p>Cappas plans to stay in Madison and enjoy being with her five- and three-year-old granddaughters. She will miss her friends at the Primate Center, but most of all, she says, "I will miss Dr. Uno, who has taught me so very much. Working for him has been a pleasure and an experience I shall always treasure."&nbsp; <p><b><i>Recent publications:</i></b> <p>Uno, H., P. Alsum, M. Zimbric, W. Houser, J. Thomson, and J. Kemnitz. 1998. Colon Cancer in Aged Captive Rhesus Monkeys (Macaca mulatta). American Journal of Primatology. 44:19-27.&nbsp; <p>Uno, H. 1997. Age-related pathology and biosenescent markers in captive rhesus macaques. J. Am. Aging Assoc. Age. 20:1-13.&nbsp;</td> </tr> </table> <hr WIDTH="100%"> <br><img SRC="globe.gif" height=20 width=20> <a href="#Top">Return to top</a> <br> <hr WIDTH="100%"> <table CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 WIDTH="75%" > <tr> <td> <h3> <i>Guenther Scheffler retires in May:</i></h3> <h2> <a NAME="From Primate Nursery to Assay Services"></a>From Primate Nursery to Assay Services&nbsp;</h2> Guenther Scheffler, who retired from our Assay Services Unit May 1, has contributed more than any individual to the outstanding growth of our center's assay services over the past three decades.&nbsp; <p>A native of Treufelde, Germany, who moved to Wisconsin in 1952, Scheffler started working at the UW Primate Laboratory in 1960 while a student of math and chemistry. Following his contributions to Harry Harlow's pioneering emotional development projects, he worked with Harry Waisman, M.D., Ph.D., studying nutrition and phenylketonuria (PKU) deficiencies.&nbsp; <p>In 1963, by now finished with his UW studies, Scheffler had joined the new Wisconsin Regional Primate Research Center full-time. He supervised the Primate Nursery until it closed in 1970. (Most infant monkeys at the time were reared in the nursery, versus reared by their mothers, as they are today.)&nbsp; <p>When Robert Goy succeeded Harlow as WRPRC director in 1971, the center's research focus changed from pathology and physiology to behavioral endocrinology. The need arose for a new lab to conduct steroid assays. So Scheffler started the "Steroid Lab" in the Behavioral Endocrinology Unit and went on to train many graduate students in steroid assay techniques. Jerry Robinson, Ph.D., now director of the Regional Primate Research Centers Program at NIH-NCRR, became the first scientific head of the lab, in 1972. The lab expanded under Robsinson, Scheffler, Bill Bridson, M.D., Sam Sholl, Ph.D., and David Abbott to become our present-day Assay Services Unit in the early 1990s. While the old Steroid Lab had assays for only a few analytes, today's Assay Services has validated assays for about 40 analytes in numerous species and sample types.&nbsp; <p>"Guenther carried out the research and development for most of these assays," says David Abbott, Ph.D., joint chief of Assay Services with Toni Ziegler, Ph.D. "He will be missed by all of his colleagues and by scientists in the USA and around the world who have benefited greatly from his immense skill and expertise in assay technology."&nbsp; <p>Abbott and Ziegler trained under Scheffler as post-doctoral trainees. He also trained former WRPRC graduate students and now established primatologists Fred Bercovitch, Ph.D., Jeffrey French, Ph.D., Colleen McCann, Ph.D., and visiting scientist Maria Bernardete Sousa, Ph.D., from Natal, Brazil.&nbsp; <p>"The opportunity to work with so many students with a variety of interests, then to see many of them go on to develop successful careers has been extremely rewarding," says Scheffler.&nbsp; <p>In 1967, while he was still in charge of the nursery, Scheffler met a medical technologist named Joan Jenny. She had just started working at the center after graduating from the UW-Madison. The two were first coworkers, then friends, and then, five years later, got married. Joan Scheffler's continuing duties at the center included working for her new husband. "Yet the marriage survived," Joan quips. She is now in charge of Clinical Pathology Services.&nbsp; <p>Scheffler plans to spend more time at their "northern retreat" in St. Germain, Wisconsin. He is an avid outdoorsman who enjoys deer and goose hunting, fishing, and camping. For many years, he and his father George hunted with friends in the Colorado Rockies, complete with taking pack horses up into the mountains and pitching tents in the snow.&nbsp; <p>"Guenther is very observant and appreciative of nature," says Joan. "He loves to be outside during all seasons, in all kinds of weather, and plans to enjoy even more of the outdoors now that he's retired."&nbsp;</td> </tr> </table> <hr WIDTH="100%"> <table COLS=1 WIDTH="75%" > <tr> <td><a NAME="Gleanings"></a><b><font size=+2>Gleanings</font></b> <p>The following "Gleanings" are from our electronic newsletter, Primate Pulse. For more information, contact Jordana Lenon, (608) 263-7024, jlenon@primate.wisc.edu.&nbsp; <p><b><i>Grants and awards</i></b> <br>Wendy Saltzman, David Abbott, Neil Binkley, Joe Kemnitz, Ph.D.s, and Ricki Colman have earned an NIH-NIA grant to study absence of estrogen-depletion bone loss in common marmosets.&nbsp; <p>The UW-Madison Medical School Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences has earned the Glaucoma Research Foundation's Center of Excellence Award. Honorees conducting research at the WRPRC include James VerHoeve, Ph.D., and Paul Kaufman, M.D., who directs the UW glaucoma team. (See <a href="http://www.wisc.edu/news/thisweek/Awards/Y98/jun/glaucoma.html">http://www.wisc.edu/news/thisweek/Awards/Y98/jun/glaucoma.html</a>.)&nbsp; <p>Ei Terasawa, Ph.D., has received an NIH-NIA grant to study aging of the neuroendocrine hypothalamus.&nbsp; <p>Ze Huang, M.D., has earned a UW Academic Staff Professional Development grant for training on molecular analysis of multi-specific genes in insulin signal transduction.&nbsp; <p><b><i>Appointments&nbsp;</i></b> <br>Theresa Duello, Ph.D., has been appointed to the Endocrine Society's Minority Affairs Committee and Short Course Program Speakers Bureau.&nbsp; <p>Nellie Laughlin, Ph.D., has accepted a three-year term as a council member of the Midwestern Psychological Association, and a three-year term on Neurobehavioral Toxicology and Teratology editorial board.&nbsp; <p>Chuck Snowdon, Ph.D., has been named a UW-Madison Hilldale Professor. This elite award is given to those who "excel in scholarly activity with records of outstanding research and a promise of continued productivity."&nbsp; <p>Ei Terasawa, Ph.D., has been appointed a council member of the International Society of Neuroendocrinology for a four-year term.&nbsp; <p><b><i>New staff&nbsp;</i></b> <br>Chuck Bishop, Business Office, March 30.&nbsp; <br>Steve Jacoris, B.A., M.A., associate research specialist, Assay Services Unit, June 1. <br>Eva G. Rakasz, Ph.D., assistant scientist and program director, Immunology and Virology Core&nbsp; <br>&nbsp;&nbsp; Lab, March 2.&nbsp; <br>Maria Theresa Zayas, B.S., associate research specialist, Immunology and Virology Core&nbsp; <br>&nbsp;&nbsp; Laboratory, June 1. .</td> </tr> </table> <hr WIDTH="100%"> <br><a NAME="Newsletter contact information"></a>This is the text-only, electronic version of Centerline, which is published quarterly by the Wisconsin Regional Primate Research Center, 1220 Capitol Court, Madison, WI 53715-1299. This newsletter provides updates on scientific research and supporting activities funded by the National Institutes of Health, National Center for Research Resources. We welcome enquiries about our research programs in primate biomedicine and conservation. We can also provide references for scientific papers or other information concerning topics addressed in this newsletter. Please send correspondence to: <p><a href="mailto:jlenon@primate.wisc.edu">Jordana Lenon, Editor</a> <br>Wisconsin Regional Primate Research Center <br>1220 Capitol Court <br>Madison, WI 53715-1299 <br>Telephone (608)263-7024 <br>FAX (608)263-4031 <br>E-mail: jlenon@primate.wisc.edu <p><img SRC="globe.gif" height=20 width=20> <a href="http://www.primate.wisc.edu/">Return to WRPRC Home Page</a> <p><img SRC="globe.gif" height=20 width=20> <a href="#Top">Return to top</a> <br>&nbsp; <p>Copyright 1998. Wisconsin Regional Primate Research Center </body> </html> http://www.wisc.edu/news/thisweek/Research/Bio/Y98/colon.html.) 

On leaving Madison, Uno says he will greatly miss his friends and colleagues and the UW itself. He'll also miss the variety of performing arts venues the Madison area has had to offer over the past 20 years. Uno owns an extensive classical music audiovisual collection and played cello in local string quartets here for many years. He hopes to relish more of the same when he and his wife Shoko, retired recently from the Preschool of the Arts in Madison, return to Oregon. They have bought a new house in West Linn, near Portland. They also plan to spend more time with their son Takeshi, his wife Vicki, one-year-old granddaughter Melanie, and their daughter Yayoi. 

Cappas plans to stay in Madison and enjoy being with her five- and three-year-old granddaughters. She will miss her friends at the Primate Center, but most of all, she says, "I will miss Dr. Uno, who has taught me so very much. Working for him has been a pleasure and an experience I shall always treasure." 

Recent publications:

Uno, H., P. Alsum, M. Zimbric, W. Houser, J. Thomson, and J. Kemnitz. 1998. Colon Cancer in Aged Captive Rhesus Monkeys (Macaca mulatta). American Journal of Primatology. 44:19-27. 

Uno, H. 1997. Age-related pathology and biosenescent markers in captive rhesus macaques. J. Am. Aging Assoc. Age. 20:1-13. 

Guenther Scheffler retires in May:

From Primate Nursery to Assay Services 

A native of Treufelde, Germany, who moved to Wisconsin in 1952, Scheffler started working at the UW Primate Laboratory in 1960 while a student of math and chemistry. Following his contributions to Harry Harlow's pioneering emotional development projects, he worked with Harry Waisman, M.D., Ph.D., studying nutrition and phenylketonuria (PKU) deficiencies. 

In 1963, by now finished with his UW studies, Scheffler had joined the new Wisconsin Regional Primate Research Center full-time. He supervised the Primate Nursery until it closed in 1970. (Most infant monkeys at the time were reared in the nursery, versus reared by their mothers, as they are today.) 

When Robert Goy succeeded Harlow as WRPRC director in 1971, the center's research focus changed from pathology and physiology to behavioral endocrinology. The need arose for a new lab to conduct steroid assays. So Scheffler started the "Steroid Lab" in the Behavioral Endocrinology Unit and went on to train many graduate students in steroid assay techniques. Jerry Robinson, Ph.D., now director of the Regional Primate Research Centers Program at NIH-NCRR, became the first scientific head of the lab, in 1972. The lab expanded under Robsinson, Scheffler, Bill Bridson, M.D., Sam Sholl, Ph.D., and David Abbott to become our present-day Assay Services Unit in the early 1990s. While the old Steroid Lab had assays for only a few analytes, today's Assay Services has validated assays for about 40 analytes in numerous species and sample types. 

"Guenther carried out the research and development for most of these assays," says David Abbott, Ph.D., joint chief of Assay Services with Toni Ziegler, Ph.D. "He will be missed by all of his colleagues and by scientists in the USA and around the world who have benefited greatly from his immense skill and expertise in assay technology." 

Abbott and Ziegler trained under Scheffler as post-doctoral trainees. He also trained former WRPRC graduate students and now established primatologists Fred Bercovitch, Ph.D., Jeffrey French, Ph.D., Colleen McCann, Ph.D., and visiting scientist Maria Bernardete Sousa, Ph.D., from Natal, Brazil. 

"The opportunity to work with so many students with a variety of interests, then to see many of them go on to develop successful careers has been extremely rewarding," says Scheffler. 

In 1967, while he was still in charge of the nursery, Scheffler met a medical technologist named Joan Jenny. She had just started working at the center after graduating from the UW-Madison. The two were first coworkers, then friends, and then, five years later, got married. Joan Scheffler's continuing duties at the center included working for her new husband. "Yet the marriage survived," Joan quips. She is now in charge of Clinical Pathology Services. 

Scheffler plans to spend more time at their "northern retreat" in St. Germain, Wisconsin. He is an avid outdoorsman who enjoys deer and goose hunting, fishing, and camping. For many years, he and his father George hunted with friends in the Colorado Rockies, complete with taking pack horses up into the mountains and pitching tents in the snow. 

"Guenther is very observant and appreciative of nature," says Joan. "He loves to be outside during all seasons, in all kinds of weather, and plans to enjoy even more of the outdoors now that he's retired." 

The following "Gleanings" are from our electronic newsletter, Primate Pulse. For more information, contact Jordana Lenon, (608) 263-7024, jlenon@primate.wisc.edu. 

Grants and awards
Wendy Saltzman, David Abbott, Neil Binkley, Joe Kemnitz, Ph.D.s, and Ricki Colman have earned an NIH-NIA grant to study absence of estrogen-depletion bone loss in common marmosets. 

The UW-Madison Medical School Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences has earned the Glaucoma Research Foundation's Center of Excellence Award. Honorees conducting research at the WRPRC include James VerHoeve, Ph.D., and Paul Kaufman, M.D., who directs the UW glaucoma team. (See http://www.wisc.edu/news/thisweek/Awards/Y98/jun/glaucoma.html.) 

Ei Terasawa, Ph.D., has received an NIH-NIA grant to study aging of the neuroendocrine hypothalamus. 

Ze Huang, M.D., has earned a UW Academic Staff Professional Development grant for training on molecular analysis of multi-specific genes in insulin signal transduction. 

Appointments 
Theresa Duello, Ph.D., has been appointed to the Endocrine Society's Minority Affairs Committee and Short Course Program Speakers Bureau. 

Nellie Laughlin, Ph.D., has accepted a three-year term as a council member of the Midwestern Psychological Association, and a three-year term on Neurobehavioral Toxicology and Teratology editorial board. 

Chuck Snowdon, Ph.D., has been named a UW-Madison Hilldale Professor. This elite award is given to those who "excel in scholarly activity with records of outstanding research and a promise of continued productivity." 

Ei Terasawa, Ph.D., has been appointed a council member of the International Society of Neuroendocrinology for a four-year term. 

New staff 
Chuck Bishop, Business Office, March 30. 
Steve Jacoris, B.A., M.A., associate research specialist, Assay Services Unit, June 1.
Eva G. Rakasz, Ph.D., assistant scientist and program director, Immunology and Virology Core 
   Lab, March 2. 
Maria Theresa Zayas, B.S., associate research specialist, Immunology and Virology Core 
   Laboratory, June 1. .