MADISON, Wis. -- In a few days, the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health will open the doors to the area's only interdisciplinary research complex.

VIDEO: Watch The Report

Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research, or WIMR as it is known to those in the local medical community, is unique in that surgeons, researchers and bioengineers will all work side-by-side to tackle problems and bring innovative medicine from the lab to patients' bedsides.

Doctors have long thought of such a complex as the holy grail of medicine.

"Twenty years ago we all thought that was a pipedream," said Dr. Thomas Zdeblick.

Zdeblick is also a professor and the Chairman of the UW Department of Orthopedics and Rehabilitation.

"The idea for this building was one where researchers from multiple different specialties can all work together," said Zdeblick. "It's really built for that sort of interface and translation, so that the researchers in our area might step over to the researchers in transplant or general surgery or some other cellular where they'll share some aspects. That sort of synergy will hopefully yield better results over time."

The hallways in WIMR were created wider to accommodate researchers walking and talking as they make new discoveries. Equipment is strategically placed for sharing and there are many open areas for discussion.

"They share the same space," said Zdeblick. "They have places where they can talk and conference and it's hoping that all those people in the same building will really make it better."

Zdeblick is working closely with biomedical engineers in orthopedics in developing re-generative tissue that may someday replace metal in knee and hip replacements.

The work is being done on the fifth floor of the new WIMR East Tower.

"The challenging thing in growing new tissue is that you can't just take it from a Petri dish and put it in a patient and expect it to work," said Zdeblick.

To solve the problem, Zdeblick brought on Dr. Wan-Ju Li, a top researcher in the field of tissue engineering.

"To develop a program and build it around a few individuals like Li, that has the possibility to come back to the clinical side to get back into the operating room and back into patients," said Zdeblick. "That is exciting."

WIMR is what enticed Li to leave the National Institutes of Health, pass up other job offers and come to Madison.

With his own patented machine, Li can create cartilage from mature stem cells in as little as 42 days.

The cartilage may someday be used in spinal injuries, knee and hip replacements.

"All those areas can improve the lives of all of our patients to hopefully someday not have metal in their joints, but have cartilage back in their joints as they start to wear out," said Zdeblick.

Currently Li's cartilage is being tested by biomedical engineers on the same floor, in the same lab where he created it at WIMR.

"There are a lot of good ideas but it takes a number of people to get those ideas from test tube to lab to the patient," said Zdeblick.

Li said that collaborative medical effort is exactly what he had been looking for.

"I can just walk next door and talk to the surgeon," said Li. "By talking to the surgeon I can understand what the most needed treatment for the patient is."

"We've been very innovative at UW with surgical innovations but the research aspect has to jump back into the operating room to make that work," said Zdeblick.

Zdeblick remains hopeful, that with the right people working on the team, Li's research will yield something that will get to the patient within the next five years.

"I'm pretty excited about the possibility of that happening," he said.

The second and third towers in the WIMR complex are slated to be done by 2012 and cost $450 million together.