UW-Madison receives $8.9 million stem-cell grant

Madison, Wis. — A team of researchers here led by James Thomson will delve further into the workings of stem cells with an $8.9 million, five-year grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), announced today.

They hope to discover more about how stem cells become other types of cells in the body, as well as how certain types of cells revert to being stem cells.

"The basic theme (of the award) is pluripotency and reprogramming," said Thomson, in a press release. "How do cells decide to exit a pluripotent state and become a certain cell type, and how, when reprogrammed, does a differentiated cell go back to a pluripotent state?"

This research is a collaboration among the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center, the Genome Center of Wisconsin, the Morgridge Institute for Research, and the Medical College of Wisconsin.