Cellular Dynamics International, the stem cell company founded by UW-Madison researcher James Thomson in 2004, has won the top prize in the Wall Street Journal’s 2011 Technology Innovation Awards. Click here to read a Wisconsin State Journal story for more.

CDI, of Madison, was named the overall gold winner in the awards, announced Monday, chosen from 605 applications submitted by companies and individuals in 31 countries. CDI has a proprietary process that can turn cells taken from a patient’s blood into the individual’s stem cell line and can then be transformed into virtually any cell type in the human body.

The company already has heart and blood vessel cells on the market to researchers and drug discovery companies and is starting to make neurons and liver cells available.