More details have been revealed about a new biohealth technology hub that is projected to generate around 141,000 jobs over 10 years — with most of those positions likely to be in supply-chain and service industries, even restaurants, that benefit from economic growth.
Eighteen public and private entities, including Medical College of Wisconsin and Milwaukee Area Technical College, are slated to share $49 million in federal funding for the biohealth hub centered on personalized medicine, an emerging form of health care based on an individual’s unique genetic makeup.
The funding, announced earlier this month from the U.S. Department of Commerce, aims to encourage and support research, manufacturing and jobs. Altogether, $504 million was awarded for a dozen “Tech Hubs” spanning 14 states.
Wisconsin, Indiana and New Hampshire will focus on biosciences and medicine. Other states will pursue clean energy, microchip manufacturing, and climate-change resistant infrastructure.
The tech-hub designation recognizes decades of work and accomplishment in Wisconsin’s biosciences, said Lisa Johnson, chief executive officer of BioForward Wisconsin , a Madison-based organization founded in 1987 as the Wisconsin Biotechnology Association.