MADISON, Wis. -- A veteran researcher and administrator will serve as interim director for the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Marsha Mailick Seltzer will help develop the concept for the $150 million research institutes -- one public, one private.

The institutes will bring together teams of researchers from different disciplines to find cures for diseases and tackle other scientific problems.

Plans call for construction to begin next year and finish in late 2009.

Seltzer will keep her job at UW's Waisman Center, a complex of laboratories for basic and clinical biomedical and behavioral research.

The university will recruit a permanent director once the plans are closer to fruition.