Twelve UW-Madison faculty members have been named finalists to compete for five spots in the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, the public part of a $150 million public-private research building going up on the 1300 block of University Avenue.

The institute, to focus on biotechnology, nanotechnology and information technology, is expected to open next year.

Twenty-six faculty members submitted proposals last fall. The 12 finalists have been asked to turn in detailed proposals by April 1. The five winners are expected to be named in September, a year before they will begin to move into the building.

Each of the five winners will be joined by three researchers recruited from off campus, for a total of 20 chief scientists. About 400 people will work throughout the building, which also includes the private Morgridge Institute for Research.

The finalists, their departments and summaries of their proposed topics:

• Mark Craven, biostatistics and medical informatics; computer-guided discovery in systems biology.

• John Denu, biomolecular chemistry; epigenetics.

• Patricia Flatley Brennan, nursing; health technology design in the living environment laboratory.

• David Wasserman, pharmacology; molecular interactions.

• Michael Ferris, computer sciences; optimization in biology and medicine.

• Dietram Scheufele, life sciences communication; science and culture.

• Jean-Michel Ane, agronomy; symbiosis: the benefits of living together.

• John Yin, chemical and biological engineering; a Wisconsin institute for systems biology.

• Lih-Sheng (Tom) Turng, mechanical engineering; polymer bio-nanocomposite scaffolds for tissue engineering.

• Robert Hamers, chemistry; nanomaterials for energy independence and a sustainable environment.

• Craig Berridge, psychology; computational neural networks.

• David Schwartz, chemistry; human genomic variation.