Expanded Waisman Center supports vital programs

A $25 million expansion of the Waisman Center, to be marked with a dedication, Tuesday, Sept. 4, will support the center’s pioneering research, services, and education in human development, developmental disabilities and neurodegenerative diseases.

Dedication events also will include an all-day scientific symposium, “Developmental Science: Genes, Brain and Behavior,” Wednesday, Sept. 5 in the Waisman Center auditorium, 1500 Highland Ave.

The $25 million project included the addition of a seven-story tower and the expansion and remodeling of the center’s west annex. Seventy-one thousand square feet was added to the complex, which makes room for new state-of-the art research laboratories and programs for children with developmental disabilities.

Research programs housed in the newly completed tower include:

– The Waisman Clinical Biomanufacturing Facility, a highly specialized clean room facility that will produce gene and cell-based therapeutics to be used in early human clinical trials.

– The W.M. Keck Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior, a comprehensive and sophisticated imaging center that incorporates a high-field-strength MRI scanner and a PET scanner for the study of affective and developmental disorders, including autism.

– A gene therapy research program, which will develop technologies for the transfer of genes into human and animal tissues.

– A research program on stem cell biology and transplantation, which will conduct basic biological research on stem cells.

Expansion and remodeling of first-floor areas of the center have provided much-needed room for the center’s early intervention programs, and doubled the area that houses the Waisman Early Childhood Program for children with and without developmental disabilities.

Other features include a new lobby area and Family Resource Room, and a new conference center with advanced audio/visual systems and interactive technology.

The expansion project was entirely funded by gifts from UW alumni and friends, private foundations and the UW–Madison Graduate School. The tower addition, the William F. and Betty Jo Heckrodt Translational Research Tower, honors the lead donors, a 1942 UW alumnus and his wife from Menasha, Wis.

The west wing, which houses the early childhood and early intervention program, was supported by a gift from the Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation of Madison and is named in honor of former Waisman Center executive associate director Judith B. Ward, who recently retired.

Other lead donors to the University of Wisconsin Foundation’s capital campaign for the Waisman Center include Thomas G. Koltes, Hilton Head, South Carolina; James Kress, DePere, Wisconsin; the Oscar Rennebohm Foundation and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.

Founded in 1973, the Waisman Center is one of nine centers across the country dedicated to the advancement of knowledge about human development, developmental disabilities and neurodegenerative diseases.

The center’s interdisciplinary programs draw together 50 faculty, 300 staff, and 250 graduate and post-graduate students from 26 UW–Madison academic departments. It is located across from UW Hospital and Clinics.

For more information, call (608) 263-5940.