WisBusiness.com

Wisconsin’s #biohealth industry had an estimated 💰$22 billion direct #economic impact in the state last year, according to BioForward, Inc.’s latest report. The Madison-based group recently published its “Wisconsin Biohealth Industry Landscape and Economic Impact Report,” detailing #job growth in the sector and its contribution to the state #economy. The release coincides with the #Wisconsin Biohealth Summit, being held in Madison this week. In addition to the direct economic impact, the report highlights $37.7 billion in total economic impact in the state, combining direct, indirect and induced sources. The biohealth industry supports more than 141,000 jobs across the state from these broad impacts, and industry employers directly employed more than 58,000 people in 2023, according to the report. That direct employment figure has 📈 grown by 25% since 2018. 🔎 Read more and see the full report at https://lnkd.in/gU9U-Yyt

The number of annual #union petitions in the state has more than 📈 doubled in recent years, suggesting interest in unionization is on the rise even as the share of #Wisconsin workers in #unions has fallen substantially. Wisconsin had a total of 47 #unionpetitions filed with the National Labor Relations Board in fiscal year 2024, which ran from Oct. 1, 2023 to Sept. 30, 2024. That marked a 114% increase since fiscal year 2021, when 22 petitions were filed. That number was 28 for fiscal year 2022 and 25 for fiscal year 2023. The increase in Wisconsin is part of a regional trend, the #NLRB figures show. #Midwest states had a 138% increase in union petitions over the same period, which is the highest percentage increase of any region in the country. By percentage, Wisconsin is on the low end for these increases: #Ohio had a 226% increase; #Indiana had a 187% increase; #Michigan saw a 160% increase; and #Minnesota had a 124% increase. Among nearby states, only #Illinois had a smaller percentage change with 95%. 📌 Read more at https://lnkd.in/gNz9km_c

This week’s episode of WisBusiness.com: the Podcast is with returning guest Tina Chang, CEO of SysLogic, Inc.. Chang shares insights from the Brookfield-based company’s recent Cybersecurity Summit, held earlier this month in Milwaukee, while also discussing some of the latest industry trends such as #AI development. 🎙 “AI certainly hit us, from a societal perspective, by storm and certainly on the top of everybody’s minds,” Chang said. “AI definitely was a feature at this past Cybersecurity Summit, not only AI in its way to enable #cybersecurity, but where more adoption of AI is creating more cybersecurity concern.” #SysLogic specializes in #IT consulting, cybersecurity, #dataanalytics and application development. Chang says AI is becoming “better and better” at identifying unauthorized access to online data, helping IT professionals prevent or stop attacks more quickly. Listen in full, sponsored by University of Wisconsin-Madison, at https://lnkd.in/gKbQuMzp

Statewide 🏡 home sales in September were 8.7% lower over the year as prices continued to rise, the latest Wisconsin REALTORS® Association report shows. A total of 5,817 homes were sold in the state last month, down 📉 from 6,370 in September 2023. Still, year-to-date home sales are 3.8% higher than during the first nine months of 2023, as a “strong start” to 2024 gave a boost to this year’s total so far. At the same time, the median #home price for September rose 📈 6% from $292,500 to $310,000. Despite the rising prices, WRA Board of Directors Chair Mary Jo Bowe says lower #mortgage rates “have really helped improve affordability” in #Wisconsin. Mortgage interest rates dipped to 6.18% in September, down from 7.2% in September 2023. Read more at https://lnkd.in/g4dtT2n6

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Early research on #cancer drugs that use SHINE Technologies' Illumira product found they could extend patients’ lifespans and more effectively treat #kidney and #prostate cancer, the Janesville company announced. The business and #WARF Therapeutics, the drug discovery program of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), recently released findings from research conducted at University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Advanced Radiotheranostics Lab. It focused on two treatments: #WT7695 and #ART101. Both include SHINE’s non-carrier added lutetium-177 chloride, called Illumira. The #radioactive isotope #Lu177 can kill cancer cells with a strong dose of #radiation guided by “cancer-seeking radiopharmaceutical agents,” while sparing healthy tissues. SHINE CEO and founder Greg Piefer says the research fundings offer “further validation that #Ilumira is more effective than the standard of care” for treating #cancer. 🔎 Read more at https://lnkd.in/gBG7tghG

Approximately 16 months ago I started my journey at the Wisconsin Agri-Business Association under the leadership and guidance of Tom Bressner. Tom has been a great mentor, boss and leader to myself and for the association and will sadly be retiring in July of 2025. Earlier this month, I accepted the Executive Director position (effective November 1). I am extremely humbled and honored to be named the next Executive Director of the association. While my day-to-day tasks will change, my passion for agriculture and rural Wisconsin remains. Though this new journey will bring new challenges, I am extremely excited to continue learning, growing and advocating for the industry I love! 💚 Thank you to WisBusiness.com for sharing the article.

Smaller #nuclearenergy technology could play a role in bolstering the U.S. nuclear industry due to potential #economic advantages over traditional plants, a University of Wisconsin-Madison expert says. That’s according to Dr. Ben Lindley, assistant professor of #nuclearengineering and #engineeringphysics at the university. He spoke yesterday during a seminar focused on small modular reactors and #microreactors, hosted by the Wisconsin Energy Institute. He noted about 90 nuclear reactors are operating in the United States, and several had been closed down in recent years due to economic reasons, such as cheaper gas and variability in #energy prices. But over just the past two years or so, other factors have driven “a dramatic reversal of fortunes” for #nuclear, as data centers drive higher electricity demand amid higher gas prices linked to the war in #Ukraine. “So now, there are currently plans to restart at least two of the ones that shut down … and the current plants are also thinking about how they drive even more power out of their existing plants,” he said, noting that will require substantial investments in these facilities. 🔎 Read more at https://lnkd.in/gXKjarHc

🐛 Researchers at University of Wisconsin-Madison are leveraging a unique quirk of animal #biology to improve an imaging technique used to identify targets for #drugtherapies. A team led by Prof. Ci Ji Lim recently published a study in the journal Springer Nature's Nature Communications detailing this #research, which is focused on boosting the clarity of images captured through cryogenic electron microscopy, or #cryoEM. This imaging technique involves freezing samples in a thin, water-based film and taking images of them with an electron 🔬 microscope, which enables high-resolution pictures of #microscopic structures such as #proteins and other cellular structures. One challenge with this approach is that damage to the structures being studied is more common at the edges of the sample, reducing the quality of the image. “When proteins interact with this interface, they can clump together along the edges or begin to unfold and irreversibly change their form,” Lim said in a statement. “There are many proteins that we just haven’t been able to fully explore the structures of because of this problem.” 🔎 Read more at https://lnkd.in/g2eFZyxD

This week’s episode of “WisBusiness: the Podcast” is with Dan Butkus and Scott Rolfs, two members of a coalition that’s pushing for greater regulation of wake-enhanced 🚤#boating. Butkus is the president of lake group association Wisconsin Lakes and Rolfs is president of Lakes at Stake Wisconsin, which was formed last year in response to concerns about the impacts of wake-enhanced #boats on #lakes in the state. The growing coalition now has dozens of member organizations and recently released a series of policy positions they’re backing. These include: keeping wake-enhanced boating activities at least 700 feet from any #shoreline; restricting such activities to water 30 feet or deeper; requiring boats moving between lakes to prove they have decontaminated their ballast tanks to prevent the spread of #invasivespecies; and preserving local municipalities’ ability to enact more restrictive local ordinances. “We had so many people on #Wisconsin lakes, whether they be fishermen, sailors, people who own properties on lakes, boaters, canoers, you name it — who were seeing really detrimental effects from wake surfing and wake boat use,” Rolfs said. 🎙 Listen to the full podcast, sponsored by University of Wisconsin-Madison, at https://lnkd.in/gxEPm2xZ