Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery facility opens on UW-Madison campus

Twin research institutes and a space designed for all to engage in science opened Thursday (Dec. 2) on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. The mission shared by the three partners in the new facility, intended to become a destination in Madison for attracting researchers, students, businesses and visitors from across the state and around the world, is to accelerate the creation of knowledge to advance human health and well-being. In addition to Thursday's grand opening ceremony, events run through Dec. 11 to celebrate the completion of the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery building, an innovative public-private building project that began three years ago. Within the building, UW-Madison's public Wisconsin Institute for Discovery and the private Morgridge Institute for Research work to address critical challenges in fields ranging from virology and medical devices to the design of living spaces that accommodate home health care needs. World-class scientists leading the institutes include James Thomson , who was the first to isolate and grow human embryonic stem cells in 1998 and reprogrammed adult skins cells to a pluripotent state in 2007.