Last April, Kaitlyne McNamara walked across TV screens and into the hearts and imaginations of millions of viewers around the world. A victim of spina bifida since birth, Kaitlyne was finally living a more normal life after suffering for years with a tiny bladder.

That story - about the world's first successful implantation of laboratory-grown organs in humans - was big news in 2006. Such big news, in fact, that Discover magazine cited the research of Anthony Atala, MD, director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, as the No. 2 science story of the year. Another top science story of 2006 was the research of Wake Forest's Lawrence Rudel, PhD, and colleagues, about the dangers of trans fats.

A new research facility has just opened in Piedmont Triad Research Park.

Like Atala and Rudel, the more than 800 faculty members at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center are all contributing to advancements in science and medicine. Seven Wake Forest divisions or departments ranked in the top 25 nationwide in research funding from the National Institutes of Health, and the medical school garnered nearly $190 million in total outside funding in the last fiscal year. Royalties from licensure of medical devices and discoveries at the university have totaled more than $190 million over the past six years, more than all of the state's other universities combined.

More than 15 startup companies have been founded on research at Wake Forest, and several of those companies are among the nearly 40 tenants in the expanding Piedmont Triad Research Park (PTRP).

Conceived in the early 1990s, PTRP includes plans for more than 200 acres in downtown Winston-Salem. In addition to the labs of Atala and Rudel, PTRP's tenants include Targacept, a drug-development firm that is one of the most promising biomedical companies in North Carolina.

Planners' concept shows the mature park's Central District.

At full development, PTRP will comprise up to 5 million square feet of laboratory, office, and mixed-use space, creating up to 30,000 new jobs in the Triad and a total annual economic impact in the hundreds of millions of dollars. PTRP has six occupied buildings, including two that have opened in the past year, where a total of 800 people work. Major infrastructure improvements have been made, and more are planned over the next three years. Three new facilities are under development, including the Center for Design Innovation, a joint project of the NC School of the Arts, Winston-Salem State University, and Forsyth Technical Community College.

Dr. Anthony Atala directs research at the Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

"The Piedmont Triad Research Park represents economic opportunity for our region, but it also presents an opportunity for businesses and entrepreneurs from other areas who are looking for a science- and business-friendly environment in which to grow and thrive," says Richard H. Dean, MD, president and CEO of Wake Forest University Health Sciences. "The mature Piedmont Triad Research Park will be a multifaceted urban community, located in one of the best places in the country to live and work."