Dr. Harry Waisman, namesake of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Waisman Center, was an early champion of screening and treatment of phenylketonuria—a rare, inherited metabolic disorder that can cause severe developmental disabilities if left untreated.
A newborn baby in a hospital nursery.
PKU is one of 44 serious disorders that newborns in Wisconsin are tested for at the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene’s Newborn Screening Laboratory.
This video talks about Dr. Waisman’s early PKU work and features Kay Emerson, the first person successfully treated for PKU in Wisconsin.