WiCell donates $1 million in gear to UW-Madison labs

Four advanced pieces of scientific laboratory equipment with a total value of approximately $1 million now are available for use by University of Wisconsin–Madison stem cell and other researchers at several campus departments and centers due to a donation by the private nonprofit WiCell Research Institute.

WiCell made the gifts as part of its ongoing efforts to support stem cell research on campus and the work of the 70 members of the university’s Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center (SCRMC).

The donated equipment, campus recipients and contacts for use are:

• an Agilent 1100 High Performance Liquid Chromatography System donated to the core facility of the Waisman Center, Graduate School (Jim Malter);
• a Thermo Scientific Electron Mass Spectrometer LTQ-Orbitrap gifted to the Department of Chemistry, College of Letters & Science (Josh Coon);
• a Baker EdgeGard EG-6252 Clean Air Bench donated to the Synchrotron Radiation Center, Graduate School (Bruce Neumann);
• an Eksigent Nano LC-2D System gifted to the Department of Physiology, School of Medicine and Public Health (office@physiology.wisc.edu).

“The primary mission of WiCell is to support stem cell science and researchers here on campus at UW–Madison,” says Erik Forsberg, executive director of the research institute. “We hope these gifts supplement scarce university and state funding to expand access to state-of-the-art equipment for researchers across campus, and in particular members of the SCRMC.”

The SCRMC was founded in 2007 as a virtual umbrella center for stem cell researchers across campus and is under the joint direction of the School of Medicine and Public Health and the Graduate School.

The WiCell Research Institute, founded in 1999 as an affiliate of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, is dedicated to expanding the frontiers of science and medicine by unlocking the potential of stem cells.