Brad’s Update
Your support of the Morgridge Institute for Research and our curiosity-driven work has never been more important than it is today.
You make our mission possible by fueling Morgridge’s ability to attract the brightest scientists, equipping them with leading-edge tools, and by allowing us to bring science into the public realm, expanding the understanding of science’s role in society.
Brad Schwartz
The evidence of our impact is compelling. The return on your investment is changing the face of biomedical science. For example, Morgridge research is working toward:
- Better early-warning systems to prevent preterm birth, which impact one in 10 pregnancies in the United States and pose serious health threats to newborns;
- New pathways to treat acute long COVID;
- New approaches to fighting schistosomiasis, a tropical disease that sickens more than 200 million people annually and is expanding due to climate change;
- Techniques that may help repair human heart tissue damaged by heart attack.
All of these projects — and many more — are powered by our researchers’ curiosity. Sustaining that momentum is key to moving our discoveries forward, changing lives by improving human health.
Our vigor, inspired by your generosity, makes a lasting impact that will be felt for generations as we lift science and society with new discoveries.
Government funding models are shifting, and universities are prioritizing translational research. But to support that translational research, the work of Morgridge scientists is essential. It provides the basic research building blocks and key discoveries that make new therapies possible.
Our researchers are also entrepreneurial, helping to usher scientific knowledge into the marketplace. In this report, we detail how Morgridge Investigator Kevin Eliceiri is working with startup company Elephas Biosciences, which created a platform to predict whether patients will respond successfully to cancer immunotherapy.
This update also highlights how Sondra Jackson and her family have lent their support to our Summer Science Camp, opening new worlds of science knowledge and university life for rural Wisconsin high school students.
From the lab bench to the marketplace to the community, Morgridge is making a difference, with your support and through your vision.
As always, thank you for your commitment!
Brad Schwartz, M.D.
CEO, Morgridge Institute for Research
As a donor, you are:
Exploring Science, Fearlessly
Donors like you help scientists pursue fearless science. Thank you for supporting biomedicine that will improve human health. With your support, you’re helping fight disease, understand the depths of biology, unlock ways to stop cancer, HIV, and many more disorders.
Changing Lives
Science is for everyone. You help many free and heavily-discounted science education and outreach programs for underserved children and families. From afterschool programs to the Summer Science Camp, these opportunities bring the wonders and joy of science to all families.
Milestones
You play an important role in pushing science forward. Thanks to private support from donors like you, the Morgridge Institute is working to improve human health. We can’t do this work without you—THANK YOU.
Here’s a look at some of the milestones made possible by you.
Rising Sparks: Sabina Farhadova, biomedical imaging
Working with investigators Melissa Skala and Darcie Moore, Farhadova will use cutting-edge imaging technologies to answer fundamental questions about neurogenesis – the process by which new neurons are generated in the brain – and stem cell biology.
Researchers ‘seq’ and find a way to make pig retinal cells to advance eye treatments
For the first time, researchers developed stem cell-derived pig retinal cells in comparison with human retinal cells, envisioning a path to advance treatments for eye disease and injury.
New cancer imaging startup harnesses Wisconsin expertise
Morgridge scientists are working with a Madison biomedical company to improve the success rates of cancer immunotherapy treatments, which harness patients' own immune response to fight cancer.
BioImaging North America Community Congress held in Wisconsin this fall
The BINA 2024 Community Congress will meet on September 23-27, 2024 on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus.
UW, Morgridge welcome new Rita Allen Civic Science Fellows
The Morgridge Science Communication Incubator Lab and the UW–Madison Life Sciences Communication Department welcome two new Civic Science Fellows supported by the Rita Allen Foundation.
Morgridge Trustee James Dahlberg honored for entrepreneurial achievement
James Dahlberg, Morgridge trustee and former interim chief executive officer, is among three outstanding innovators to receive 2024 Chancellor’s Entrepreneurial Achievement Awards.
Wisconsin scientists find genetic recipe to turn stem cells to blood
Writing today (July 14, 2014) in the journal Nature Communications, a group led by University of Wisconsin–Madison stem cell researcher Igor Slukvin reports the discovery of two genetic programs responsible for taking blank-slate stem cells and turning them into both red and the array of white cells that make up human blood.
Science for All
When you establish a planned gift, you help inspire the next generation of scientists. Planned gifts through an estate or annuities help support science education and outreach activities, like the Summer Science Camp.
Contact Bill Swisher, Chief Development Officer, today.
bswisher@morgridge.org
(608) 316-4364
