Regenerative Biology

Challenge Area Goals

  • Create physiologically stable, safe, and functional cells to better understand the human body
  • Apply knowledge about cellular generation for application in prevention and treatment of degenerative diseases

  • Apply knowledge to develop and tailor drugs for specific needs

At the Morgridge Institute, stem cell pioneer and National Academy of Sciences member James Thomson is continuing his groundbreaking work, conducted at UW-Madison for more than a decade, in stem cell science.  Dr. Thomson has been credited with launching the field of human embryonic stem cell science through his breakthrough isolation and culture of these cells in 1998.  He subsequently used the knowledge from a decade of human embryonic stem cell research to reprogram adult human cells to induced pluripotent stem cells in 2007.

“These remarkable pluripotent stem cells for the first time give scientists unlimited access to the basic building blocks of the human body, and that unprecedented access will yield new drug treatments for currently untreatable conditions.  Our research team‘s goal is to learn enough about coaxing, directing and tweaking human stem cells to create physiologically stable, functional cells to better understand the human body.”

– James A. Thomson