Vitamin D



Vitamin D Research at UW–Madison

WARF founder Harry Steenbock

WARF and UW-Madison have a long history of outstanding work with vitamin D. The licensing and commercial development of a vitamin D discovery made by UW-Madison biochemist Harry Steenbock is WARF's first success story. Steenbock founded WARF as a result of his 1923 breakthrough discovery that irradiating foods with ultraviolet light increased their vitamin D content. His discovery virtually eliminated rickets, a crippling bone disease of children caused by vitamin D deficiency.

UW-Madison professor Hector DeLuca is the world's foremost vitamin D researcher.

Hector DeLuca, Steenbock's last graduate student, continued his mentor's pioneering work in vitamin D. His research not only revealed the underpinnings of the endocrine system used to regulate calcium metabolism, but it enabled the development and use of vitamin D analogs in pharmacotherapy. DeLuca's research has been instrumental in the development of drugs such as Alfarol®, Calcijex®, Rocaltrol®, Hectorol® and Zemplar®, which treat kidney disease and bone loss.

View WARF's vitamin D brochure

Learn more about vitamin D and its applications for:
Osteoporosis
Prostate Cancer
Psoriasis
Chronic Kidney Disease
Diabetes
Multiple Sclerosis


View specific vitamin D technologies


Contact Mark Stoveken, WARF's vitamin D licensing manager, at 608.265.7956 or mstoveken@warf.org.


The UW-Madison/WARF Advantage
The University of Wisconsin and WARF — A Single Location to Accelerate Translational Development of New Drugs

The University of Wisconsin–Madison has the integrative capabilities to complete many key components of the drug development cycle, from discovery through clinical trials. As one of the top research universities in the world, and one of the two best-funded universities in the country, UW-Madison offers state-of-the-art facilities unmatched by most public universities.

These include the Small Molecule Screening Facility at the UW Comprehensive Cancer Center; the Zeeh Pharmaceutical Experiment Station, which provides consulting and laboratory services for developing formulations and studying solubility, stability and more; the Waisman Clinical Biomanufacturing Facility; the Wisconsin Institute for Medical Research, which provides UW–Madison with a complete translational research facility; and soon, the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, made up of innovative private and public interdisciplinary biomedical research institutes. The highly qualified experts at these facilities are ready to work with you to create a library of candidates for drug development.

WARF: A Leader in Technology Transfer Since 1925

Since its founding as the patenting and licensing arm of the UW–Madison, WARF has been working with business and industry to transform university research into products that benefit society. WARF intellectual property managers and licensing staff members are leaders in the field of university-based technology transfer. They are familiar with the intricacies of patenting, have worked with researchers in relevant disciplines, understand industries and markets, and have negotiated innovative licensing strategies to meet the individual needs of business clients.

About WARF

WARF was established in 1925 as the world's first university-based technology transfer office. It is a private, nonprofit supporting organization to UW–Madison, one of the top-ranked public research universities in the U.S. WARF supports world-class research at the university by protecting the intellectual property of its faculty, staff and students, and licensing their discoveries to companies for commercial use to benefit humankind. Through WARF's work, university research benefits the public by bringing resources back to the university to continue the cycle of investment, research and invention.