Health
Health Security at Wisconsin
Signature Strength · Supports: Biomanufacturing · Force Health & Human Performance
Biological threats — natural, accidental, or deliberate — are national security threats, and so are the invisible burdens carried by the people who serve. UW–Madison brings together world-leading infectious disease research, high-containment laboratory infrastructure, the public health institutions that turn science into readiness, one of the nation’s deepest neuroscience and brain health research communities, and the engineering, musculoskeletal medicine, and clinical enterprise that treat injury and restore the people who serve.
Immunology and healthspan are the twin focus of RISE-THRIVE, a campuswide initiative investing in a new generation of health-research faculty.
Research Strengths
pandemic preparedness · influenza & emerging pathogens · high-containment research · biosurveillance & diagnostics · vaccines & medical countermeasures · medical physics & advanced imaging · traumatic brain injury · neuroimaging · resilience & human performance · orthopedics & musculoskeletal injury · prosthetics & rehabilitation engineering · neuroengineering · medical devices & instrumentation · trauma & critical care · burn care · drug discovery & delivery · translational research · global health · clinical biomanufacturing
Biodefense & Public Health
Pathogen Research
Purpose-built high-containment facilities have hosted critical influenza and other pathogen research since 2008 — work prioritized by NIH and WHO as critical to forecasting and preventing pandemic disease.
Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene
Wisconsin’s public health and environmental laboratory since 1903 — and part of UW–Madison. WSLH provides analytical support and preparedness for outbreaks, epidemics, and biological and chemical emergencies in partnership with state and federal agencies.
Biosecurity & Responsible Research
UW–Madison maintains rigorous biosafety and biosecurity programs governing pathogen research, including oversight of federal select agent work and dual-use research of concern.
Brain Health & Human Performance
Waisman Center
A focal point on campus for research on human development, developmental disabilities, and neurodegenerative disease — with an integrated neuroimaging facility and a clinical biomanufacturing facility producing pharmaceuticals for early-stage human trials.
Center for Healthy Minds
Foundational neuroscience of wellbeing, resilience, and human flourishing — research supported by the world’s leading funders, including the National Institutes of Health and DARPA.
Neuroscience Across Campus
From psychiatry and neurology to imaging science and cognitive research, Wisconsin’s brain research community spans schools and disciplines to how people think, perform, and recover.
Injury & Recovery
Biomedical Engineering
The device-and-diagnostic layer of military medicine: research spanning biomaterials and tissue engineering, biomechanics, biomedical imaging and optics, cellular and molecular engineering, instrumentation and devices, neuroengineering — including implantable neuroprosthetic and rehabilitation technology — and systems and synthetic biology, in close collaboration with clinicians across the medical campus.
Orthopedics, Rehabilitation & Prosthetics
The Department of Orthopedics and Rehabilitation studies outcomes after the fractures of the tibia, femur, and pelvis that blast and vehicle trauma produce, guides stem cells into replacement musculoskeletal tissue, and cares for patients at the Madison VA hospital. In the College of Engineering, the BADGER Lab advances lower-limb prosthetics, rehabilitation robotics, and wearable sensors — including a clinical trial of real-world mobility interventions enrolling participants at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
Medical Physics & Imaging
The first department of medical physics in the nation and the largest — advancing the science of MRI, PET, CT, ultrasound, and radiation therapy that finds injury and disease, guides treatment, and protects the people delivering it.
The Clinical Enterprise
University Hospital & Med Flight
UW–Madison’s flagship hospital is an ACS-verified Level I trauma center for adults and children, a verified emergency general surgery center, and an ABA-certified burn center — the civilian mirror of combat casualty care. UW Health Med Flight is one of the few air and ground critical care transport services in the country with an attending emergency physician on every flight, and the UW Health Clinical Simulation Program trains teams for the moments that matter most.
The Veterans Hospital Connection
The William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital is physically connected to University Hospital and ranks among the top VA hospitals in the nation — a shared campus where veterans receive care, faculty hold joint appointments, and the research that serves those who served, from orthopedics to brain health, meets the patients it serves.
Carbone, ICTR & Pharmacy
The UW Carbone Cancer Center is one of 41 National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer centers. The Institute for Clinical and Translational Research is the translational engine that assembled the Department of Defense-funded collaboration against lung-scarring disease, and the School of Pharmacy, a leader in drug discovery and delivery since 1883, completes the path from molecule to medicine.
The Dual-Use Imperative
Health security research is health research. Pandemic preparedness strengthens the public health systems every community relies on. Vaccine and countermeasure science delivers therapies for civilian disease. Brain health research that serves those in uniform serves everyone — from concussion care for young athletes to progress against Alzheimer’s and depression.
Why It Matters
From virology and veterinary medicine to neuroscience and imaging, Wisconsin’s health research enterprise serves the health of the nation and its security.
WINS connects mission partners to Wisconsin’s health security researchers, laboratories, and public health infrastructure.