UW AMIC hosted an Introductory Visit from Promega Successfully

It was a sweltering summer day on Monday at the UW-Madison campus, but hosting two distinguished guests with Dr. Russ Johnson from Promega was so cool. Founded in Fitchburg, Wisconsin, in 1978, the local company focuses on microbiological research techniques and biomedical instrumentation, which are widely used by researchers and biotech companies across the globe. At the UW-Madison College of Engineering, we take great pride in our faculty’s expertise in regenerative medicine, biomedical devices, and bioimaging, which are closely related to the company’s business.  Dr. Frank Fan, the head of biology, and Dr. Cristopher Cowan, the head of engineering instrumentation, had extensive discussions with us and toured our research labs for potential collaborative research, experiential teaching, and other opportunities.

During the five-hour meetings and tours, we dove into research areas at UW-Madison College of Engineering, including biomaterials metrology, 3D stem cell cultivation and therapies, biomaterials imaging, and AI-aided stem cell manufacturing and monitoring. Specifically, Frank and Cris were very interested in the stem cell-related research projects led by Dr. Sean Palecek, Dr. Melissa Skala, and Dr. Bill Murphy. Meanwhile, our biomaterials characterization, biomedical imaging, and bio-3D printing expertise from Dr. Paul Voyles, Dr. Kevin Eliceiri, and Dr. HanTang Qin were equally appealing to Promega’s expanding engineering instrumentation division as the team strives to achieve low-signal imaging of luminescent biological samples.

Several UW alumni from the faculty labs mentioned above are already working as key members of the Promega team. This proves that UW-Madison has established an effective talent pipeline for industrial partners like Promega. Our interdisciplinary design courses, such as Skunkworks informatics taught by Dr. Dane Morgan and Dr. Benjamin Afflerbach, biomedical engineering design course by Dr. John Puccinelli, and mechanical engineering senior design capstone course by Dr. Mike Cheadle, would provide Promega early access to our highly sought-after engineering students through in-kind sponsorships.

In summary, Promega’s introductory visit to our UW-Madison engineering campus was very successful since we had learned each other’s engineering capabilities and collaboration needs, paving the way for a reverse company visit, cordially issued by Frank and Cris as the next step for deeper engagement and collaborations. Summer is when our faculty members focus on their research and outreach activities, so the timing could not be better for such a site visit! If your company is interested in collaborating with us on research and workforce development, please feel free to email me at xiujuan.zhang@wisc.edu!