• Mi-Kickstart Proposals Due November 1
• Celebrate Invention 2017 - Exciting Collaboration Announcement!
• New FFMI Courses Offer Credit Hours
• FFMI Receives EDA Grant
• Medical Device Event Encourages Collaboration and Networking
• Therapeutic-Focused Event Lays Out Commercialization Path
• Introducing Our New FFMI Staff Member
• Latest News from Project Teams Who Received FFMI Funding, Training, and Support
• On the Road With FFMI
• Register for the Joyce Massey TBI Summit
• In Other News

Fast Forward Medical Innovation is accepting proposals for the Mi-Kickstart early-stage funding program.  

Mi-Kickstart awards, made possible by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, MTRAC for Life Sciences Innovation Hub, the William Davidson Foundation, the U-M Medical School Office of Research, and the Michigan Institute for Clinical & Health Research offer early-stage funding to biomedical researchers across the state of Michigan. This award is aimed to enhance the commercial potential of a technology owned by any Michigan-based non-profit to the point of demonstration of utility and possible inclusion in Mi-TRAC or other research funding programs. 

CLICK HERE to access the RFP.

If you have questions, please contact MTRAC for Life Sciences Tech Mining Specialist Michelle Larkin at [email protected] or MTRAC for Life Sciences Tech Mining Specialist Sara Johnson at [email protected].

On Wednesday, October 18, the U-M Office of Technology Transfer (OTT) will host its annual Celebrate Invention event at the Michigan League Ballroom from 3:00pm-6:00pm. 

This year, we're excited to join OTT and be part of two new kiosks, along with our collaborators, spotlighting U-M's wide variety of biomedical commercialization programs, funding, and entrepreneurial education opportunities. Stop by and learn more about our MTRAC for Life Sciences Innovation Hub statewide funding program, the FFMI PACE educational programs, and the medical student Innovation & Entrepreneurship Path of Excellence.

Celebrate Invention honors U-M inventors and the rich biomedical innovation ecosystem at the University of Michigan. You'll have the chance to network with business, venture, university, and community leaders amidst displays of some of our University's best examples of innovation and entrepreneurship. CLICK HERE to RSVP. We hope to see you there!

Imagine sitting in class and something sparks an idea for a device or diagnostic that could possibly help a patient at bedside. You start the process of developing this idea, but at the end of the
day, you probably wonder, "Where do I even start?" and "Is this even useful?"

That's where Fast Forward Medical Innovation's Program Accelerating Commercialization Education (PACE) courses come into play, offering medical students, fellows, clinicians, and seasoned researchers a broad spectrum of educational opportunities that offer a deep, real-world understanding of translating research to market.

CLICK HERE to read the full article. 

U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Wilbur Ross, recently announced that 42 organizations from 28 states - including U-M's Fast Forward Medical Innovation - will receive more than $17 million to create and expand cluster-focused proof-of-concept and commercialization programs, and early-stage seed capital funds. The awards come through the Economic Development Administration's (EDA) Regional Innovation Strategies (RIS) program.

FFMI has received a $500,000 grant to develop a scalable regional education and training program that encourages and enriches the hub's biomedical innovation ecosystem across the State of Michigan and the greater Midwest region.

CLICK HERE to read the full article. 

On Friday, September 29, FFMI hosted Fast Forwarding Medical Device Innovation in partnership with the U-M College of Engineering and U-M Ross School of Business. 

More than 150 faculty, staff, and students attended the symposium that featured kickoff remarks by Jack Hu, M.S., Ph.D., Vice President for Research at U-M. The half-day event  was designed to educate and inspire attendees on commercialization principles, highlight promising technologies, and open dialogue with executives from major medical device companies and venture capital firms. 

A poster session featuring 28 research projects from faculty and students followed the event. Congratulations to the winners!

1st Place:  Clot Buster Thrombectomy Device 

Luis Savastano, M.D.; Aditya S. Pandey, M.D.; Albert Shih, Ph.D.; Yihao Zheng, Ph.D.; Jeff Plott, Ph.D.; Yang Liu, Ph.D. Candidate, Joshua Cockrum, Miranda Ajulufoh   

2nd Place:  Autonomous Fluid Responsiveness Monitor 

Grant H. Kruger, Ph.D.; Ross Kessler, M.D.   

3rd Place:  Robotic Oral Appliance for Sleep Apnea Care 

Grant H. Kruger, Ph.D.; Neeraj Kaplish, M.D.   

Crowd Favorite:  Therapeutic Vibration Device 

Kevin Ward, M.D.; Bogdan I. Epureanu, Ph.D.; M. Mert Egilmez, Ph.D.; Himanshu Saxena, M.S. (ME), PG (Marine)

On Wednesday, October 11, FFMI welcomed DeAnn Smith, Partner, Registered Patent Attorney, Foley Hoag, LLP, and Sarah Cooleybeck, Partner, Business Department at Foley Hoag, LLP, to speak to a standing-room only crowd about licensing, strategic alliances with industry, and the path to commercialization for early-stage projects.  

Following the presentations, Dave Repp, Assistant Director, U-M Venture Center, moderated a panel discussing the commercialization pathways for therapeutics. The panel covered timelines for therapeutic development, company formation and license agreement considerations, FDA regulatory requirements, and an overview of the process from invention to patient impact. 

The FFMI team is excited to introduce Najoua Elbourkadi, Ph.D., our new Associate Director for Business Development. 

Najoua joins us from Cooper Pharma, a Germany-based global pharmaceutical and healthcare company, where she was head of Business Development and Licensing. Najoua is returning to her U-M roots, as she was a postdoctoral fellow here under Dr. Richard Miller (U-M Pathology). She received her Ph.D. in Medicinal Biochemistry from UNC and her B.S. and M.S. from Hassan II University College of Science and Techniques in Morocco. 

Welcome, Najoua!

Dan Orringer, M.D., FFMI Faculty Champion and MTRAC Awardee recently received the 2017 Congress of Neurosurgeons (CNS) Innovator of the Year Award for his work on rapid intraoperative diagnosis through Simulated Raman Histology. 

U-M Therapeutic Innovation Fund Winner Wins Prestigious Award

Peter Arvan, M.D., Ph.D., a U-M Therapeutic Innovation Fund Winner, will be honored as the 2017 recipient of the  Distinguished Faculty Lectureship Award in Biomedical Research  on Monday, November 6, from 4:30pm-5:30pm in the Kahn Auditorium, BSRB. 

Innovation & Entrepreneurship Path of Excellence Student Makes the Finals

Michael Moore (M2), an  Innovation & Entrepreneurship Path of Excellence student, was selected as a finalist to pitch at the 8th Annual Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition on November 16. Michael will be competing along with other top student teams from around Michigan for prize money. 

Innovation & Entrepreneurship Student to Present at Preeminent Annual Entrepreneurship Gathering

Stephen John (M4) Innovation & Entrepreneurship Path of Excellence student, was nominated by the Lemelson Foundation to present NeoVent at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit 2017 in Hyderabad, India. 

Michelle Larkin and Denise Graves (University Relations Director, MEDC) met with Dr. Sheila Cotten, Director of the MSU-Sparrow Center for Innovation and Research, in Lansing to discuss their collaborative research efforts and resources from FFMI's MTRAC for Life Sciences Innovation Hub.

Brad Martin traveled with statewide Hub program directors and the MEDC to the Michigan Tech to meet and discuss best practices.

FFMI attended the very successful MichBio/University Research Corridor-sponsored Drug Discovery Symposium at Wayne State University. FFMI has been partnering with MSU, WSU, and U-M's CDNM on this event. Over 200 attendees from academia and the bio-industry gathered to talk about Michigan's current drug discovery efforts and future capacity for partnerships. 

The Joyce Massey TBI Summit brings together leading scientists to present cutting-edge traumatic brain injury research and exchange ideas. 

Investigators from all disciplines and career levels are encouraged to attend to learn about the current state of TBI research, as well as the major barriers we need to overcome in order to advance the field. 

There will be plenty of time for discussion with the Key Opinion Leaders, their mentees, and your colleagues, as well as a behind-the-scenes tour of Michigan Stadium. Go Blue!

CLICK HERE for more information and to register. 

Questions? Contact Bria Wiltshire. 

Nominations are open for the 2018 Agilent Early Career Professor Award. The topic of this year's award is "Contributions to the development and advancement of techniques and approaches for the study of the human microbiome, microbiome-host interactions, and interaction between individual microbiome components." CLICK HERE for more information. 

The 19th Annual HHS SBIR/STTR Conference, hosted by the CTSI of Southeast Wisconsin, will take place in Milwaukee, WI, on November 7-9, 2017. The national, three-day event is designed to educate attendees about America's Largest Seed Fund and how to access federal resources, develop competitive proposals, and secure awards. At over $920 million dollars of annual HHS funding, this is one of the largest sources of early-stage capital for technology commercialization in the United States. CLICK HERE for more information and to register.