Medical Sciences, Nutrition, and Wellness – Badger Talks – UW–Madison

Margaret Alexander

mreinfeldt — Mon, 07 Apr 2025 18:47:17 +0000

Margaret Alexander is an Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin Madison in the department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology. Dr. Alexander’s research is focused on understanding the mechanistic interactions between diet, the microbiota, and immune responses and the functional consequences of these interactions for autoimmune diseases. Dr. Alexander did her postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco in the laboratory of Dr. Peter Turnbaugh in the department of Microbiology and Immunology. She attended Carleton College for her undergraduate degree in Biology and the University of Utah for her PhD in the lab of Dr. Ryan O’Connell studying immune cell communication.

Julie Ober Allen

mreinfeldt — Mon, 22 Sep 2025 17:55:13 +0000

Dr. Allen is an assistant professor at UW-Madison and director of the Stress and Health Disparities Lab. Her research investigates how exposure to chronic stressors (e.g., ageism, discrimination, race and gender expectations, adverse life events) affects behavior, biology, psychosocial factors, and subsequent health among older US adults. Her work emphasizes the health implications of ageism, Black-White health disparities, and cardiometabolic health outcomes. The underlying motivation for this work is to inform innovative community, societal, and policy changes to promote health and reduce health disparities among the older adult population.

Brooke Ammerman

mreinfeldt — Tue, 25 Feb 2025 20:14:43 +0000

Dr. Brooke Ammerman is an Assistant Professor of Psychology, the director of the ASSIST Lab at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and a licensed clinical psychologist. Her research focuses on nonsuicidal self-injury, suicidal thoughts and behaviors, and the integration of digital technology to improve both risk detection and intervention.

Claus E Andersen

fpuleo — Wed, 07 Feb 2018 15:24:02 +0000

Dr. Claus Elholm Andersen is the Birgit Baldwin Chair and Paul and Renate Madsen Professor of Scandinavian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he is also the Head of Nordic and Associate Chair of the Department of German, Nordic, and Slavic. Recent publications include the monographs Knausgård and the Autofictional Novel and A Dissonans in This World. Readings in Hans Christian Andersen’s Early Fairytales. He has previously held positions at the University of Helsinki and the University of California, Los Angeles. He writes regularly for the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.

Anjon Audhya

mreinfeldt — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 19:27:54 +0000

The ultimate goal of the Audhya lab is to identify the regulatory pathways that control membrane deformation, which enable vesicle formation in the endosomal and secretory systems. Although basic research is the cornerstone of his program, Dr. Audhya also seeks to define pathomechanisms that underlie human disease, focusing on the impact of mutations in key trafficking components that lead to cancer, neurodegeneration, asthma, and diabetes. Dr. Audhya was promoted to the rank of Professor with tenure in 2019. On December 1, 2021, he was appointed Senior Associate Dean for Basic Research, Biotechnology, and Graduate Studies in the School of Medicine and Public Health. He is also the Director of the Center for Training in Pharmacology and Drug Development and co-leads a NIH-funded T32 graduate training program in Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology.

Areas of expertise, continued: graduate training and education, venture philanthropy

Matthew Banks

mreinfeldt — Wed, 16 Aug 2023 17:49:24 +0000

Dr. Matthew I. Banks received his Bachelor’s and Master’s of Science in Engineering from Johns Hopkins University and his Doctorate of Neuroscience from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Banks is currently Professor of Anesthesiology and Affiliate Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison, WI. Dr. Banks’ research interests include mechanisms of loss and recovery of consciousness under anesthesia, the overlap of these mechanisms with changes in arousal during natural sleep, the link between inflammation and brain function during delirium, and the mechanisms whereby psychedelics ameliorate psychiatric disorders. Dr. Banks has published over 70 scientific publications and has been funded continuously by the National Institutes of Health since 2003.

Steve Barczi

jbedermann — Wed, 25 Sep 2019 15:37:41 +0000

Dr. Barczi has been a clinician-educator who has worked in the areas of general geriatrics care, memory care and sleep disorders (with a special focus on sleep issues in later life) over the past 25 years. He has helped develop a number of new models of care for optimizing the care of older persons (e.g. geriatrics telemedicine, tele-dementia care, home-based primary care, sleep education programming). He also dedicates time in creating curricula and educational products that support competency-based education for many different healthcare disciplines. He regularly speaks to community groups as well as groups of health care professionals on a range of age-related health care topics and also adult sleep topics.

Dr. Barczi is unavailable until Spring 2027.

David Bell

jbedermann — Wed, 25 Sep 2019 16:30:45 +0000

Dr. Bell is an Associate Professor at UW-Madison and teaches in the Athletic Training Program and is the director of the Wisconsin Injury in Sport Laboratory. His research focuses on identifying risk factors for musculoskeletal injuries with a special focus on sport specialization in children.

Sport specialization is defined as year round training in a single sport and is now ubiquitous in most youth sports. Dr. Bell will provide recommendations and strategies to parents and coaches about safe sport participation.

Barbara Bendlin

jbedermann — Wed, 08 Jul 2020 21:06:32 +0000

Dr. Bendlin is unavailable until 2026.

Dr. Bendlin is Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a scientific investigator at the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. Dr. Bendlin’s research group is studying factors that may increase or decrease risk for dementia, including insulin resistance, sleep, exercise, diet, gut microbiome, and socioeconomic disadvantage. She is the director of the Neuroscience and Public Policy graduate training program, and leads several federally funded research studies focused on Alzheimer’s disease.

James Bigham MD, MPH

mreinfeldt — Thu, 25 Jul 2024 16:11:37 +0000

Dr. James Bigham is a clinical professor in the UW Department of Family Medicine and Community Health. His interests include culturally competent firearm injury prevention and compassionate approaches to address vaccine hesitancy. He co-created with a local gun shop owner an innovative hands on firearm injury prevention course titled Lock, Stock and Barrel. He also served as the American Academy of Family Physicians Vaccine Science Fellow in 2022-23 with a focus on vaccine hesitancy. As a primary care physician, he believes in the importance of forging authentic partnerships for the sake of enhancing wellness for our communities.