• Cheers to the Latest Mi-Kickstart Awardees
• Registration Open for FFMI fastPACE and FFMI fastPACE Train-the-Trainer
• U-M GI Innovation Fund RFP Available January 22
• Panel Event Highlights Experiences Working in Biomedical and Life Science Programs
• Students Complete First FFMI Courses Offering Credit Hours
• Check Out FFMI's Blog (New Post!)
• On the Road with FFMI
• Latest News from Project Teams Who Received FFMI Funding, Training, and Support
• In Other News

FFMI recently announced the latest awardees for its 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 for Life Sciences or other research funding programs. 

The new Mi-Kickstart teams are:

Ebenezer Tubman, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Biological Sciences

Michigan Technological University

"Immunization with Phage-Virus-like Particles Displaying Zika Virus B-cell Epitopes to Assess Zika Virus Protection in Mice"

Eric Van Middendorp, M.S.E., Biomedical Engineer

Spectrum Health Innovations

"Patient Auto-Slider"

Do you have an innovative idea? Are you looking for funding, collaboration, and mentorship? FFMI is launching the 8th cohort of the FFMI fastPACE course on March 16, 2018. The 4-week course is designed to equip biomedical faculty and researchers with the knowledge and tools to navigate the initial process of commercialization.

In parallel with the FFMI fastPACE course, FFMI, in partnership with the Michigan Institute for Clinical & Health Research (MICHR), has also opened enrollment for the Spring 2018 FFMI fastPACE Train-the-Trainer program. Piloted March of 2017, outside institutions now have the opportunity to observe our experts and biomedical research teams to learn how to launch the acclaimed FFMI fastPACE course at their home institutions. 

FFMI recently wrapped up the 7th cohort of the FFMI  fast PACE course with final business presentations from 11 projects (4 therapeutics, 3 device/diagnostics, 5 health IT) across the university, including the medical departments of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, Ophthalmology, Internal Medicine, Cellular & Molecular Biology, and the colleges and schools of Pharmacy, Engineering, and  Social Work. To date, the FFMI  fast PACE course has educated more than 275 faculty, staff, and students internal and external to U-M, as well as helped develop more than 135 projects. 

For more information, visit the FFMI fastPACE website, the FFMI fastPACE Train-the-Trainer website, or email [email protected]. 

Are you a researcher working in the GI or other related fields and interested in innovation and commercialization? 

The U-M Fast Forward Gastrointestinal (GI) Innovation Fund is a three-year, $500,000+ fund supported by a donation from entrepreneur alumna Mary Petrovich and matched by the U-M Medical School's Department of Internal Medicine and its Division of Gastroenterology, as well as the College of Engineering, where Ms. Petrovich received her undergraduate degree.  The RFP will be available on January 22, 2018.

Questions? Email Visha Krishnan, FFMI Senior Business Analyst, or call 734-764-2891.

On November 29, FFMI and the U-M Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies presented a panel discussion on the diverse non-academic careers available for graduates of life science programs and innovative biomedical researchers. 

Led by moderator David Olson, Ph.D., Adjunct Faculty, U-M Medical School, Mentor-in-Residence - U-M Tech Transfer Venture Center, the panel included Andrew Spencer, Ph.D., Vice President of Preclinical R&D at Millendo Therapeutics; Teri Grieb, Ph.D., Chief of Staff for the Research Enterprise at Michigan Medicine and Senior Director for Research at U-M Medical School Office of Research; Deb Ladenheim, Ph.D., Mentor-in-Residence at the U-M Office of Technology Transfer and Owner of Ladenheim Regulatory Consulting; and James Wilson, M.S., Assistant Regional Director at the Midwest Regional U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. 

The first set of for-credit courses offered by FFMI's  Program Accelerating Commercialization Education (PACE) finished with students in the PIBS 750: Biomedical Innovation & Entrepreneurship II class giving their final presentations to an expert panel of FFMI and Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies team members during the larger PIBS 550: Biomedical Innovation & Entrepreneurship I class. 

These courses are designed to provide 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. 

The latest post in the new Fast Forwarding Medical Innovation Blog, Innovation vs. Entrepreneurship in Academic Medicine: It's Not Either Or, It's And and And, is live. In this post, Kevin Ward, M.D., Executive Director of the University of Michigan Medical School's Fast Forward Medical Innovation (FFMI) program, discusses the barriers that make it difficult for innovators in university-based Academic Medical Centers to engage, as well as how to accelerate new research discoveries by thinking about patient impact as a potential product. In future blog posts, Dr. Ward will dive deeper into definitions of innovation, as well as entrepreneurship as it applies to academic medicine.

The Fast Forwarding Medical Innovation blog is a resource where Dr. Ward will share his experience at Michigan Medicine and the U-M in developing strategic programming with a purpose to make innovation and entrepreneurship a natural and expected academic behavior in hopes that great ideas will move more rapidly to patient impact. This will include his very own innovation journey and how these experiences helped in creating FFMI.

Connie Chang, FFMI Managing Director, was a panel member for two Detroit-based partnered events - the Midwest Chapter of the American College of Healthcare Executives panel discussion with Leaders of the Disruptive Healthcare Environment, and the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce Health Leaders Dinner panel discussion on Industry Clusters and Regional Innovation efforts to accelerate medtech.

Connie Chang; Hirak Parikh, Monroe-Brown Biomedical Seed Fund Manager; and Dave Repp, Assistant Director, U-M Venture Center, traveled to Boston to promote U-M biomedical innovation and find areas of interest and collaboration between early-stage venture capital groups and big pharma.

Connie Chang and Hirak Parikh attended the Accelerate Michigan Innovation Challenge and MedHealth reception. Parabricks and Ripple Science were two Monroe-Brown Seed Fund portfolio companies presenting.

Hirak Parikh attended the Michigan Venture Capital Association Awards dinner in Detroit, along with U-M Venture Center ecosystem partners.

Visha Krishnan, FFMI Senior Business Analyst, was at the Department of Commerce, U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) Chicago Regional office for the kickoff of the EDA i6 grant awarded project, "The Fast Forward Medical Innovation (FFMI) Hub at the University of Michigan (U-M"). 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.

Debra Grega, Business Development Director, gave a presentation on FFMI Innovation at the Radiological Society for North America conference in Chicago, in partnership with IBM Watson.

Brad Martin, MTRAC for Life Sciences Commercialization Program Director; Michelle Larkin, Tech Mining Specialist; and Sara Johnson, Tech Mining Specialist attended the grand opening of the Flint Ferris Wheel in Flint, MI, a co-working space for entrepreneurs and small businesses in the area and home to 100K Ideas, a Flint-based non-profit organization.

Michelle Larkin attended the launch of the new Wayne State Innovation Hub, an initiative to enhance the culture of innovation at Wayne State University by coordinating entrepreneurship education and support services on campus.

Michelle Larkin traveled to Michigan State for a meeting at MSU Technologies to discuss MTRAC for Life Sciences Innovation Hub funding and educational programs.

Sara Johnson served as a panelist for the Sling Health Design Review 1 and the Medical Innovation Group Shark Tank Final, providing valuable feedback to medical student teams developing medical technologies.

Mi-Kickstart awardees, Mukesh Nyati, Ph.D., and Theodore Lawrence, M.D., received follow-on funding through the U-M Therapeutic Innovation Fund for their project of optimization and characterization of a novel agent for tyrosine kinase inhibitor resistant lung cancers.

FFMI PACE graduate wins award

Former Fall 2016 FFMI fastPACE participant, Margaret Scisney-Matlock, Ph.D., R.N., was part of a team that won the 2017 CVC Clinical Innovation Challenge $100,000 prize for the project "WHEELS for DASH," a mobile interactive application to help patients with hypertension adhere to the physician-recommended Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet.

Innovation & Entrepreneurship Path of Excellence students gain
valuable experience

Innovation & Entrepreneurship Path of Excellence students, along with M1 students, were part of the Medical Innovation Group (MIG) Shark Tank, where all teams scored funds. 

The RFP for the Michigan-Pittsburgh-Wyss Regenerative Medicine Resource Center's Interdisciplinary Translational Project is now available. This program provides up to $150,000 per project, including direct and indirect costs, for one year, to help guide innovations that address unmet clinical needs for the regeneration or restoration of dental, oral, and craniofacial tissues. The deadline is January 12, 2018. Visit the website for more details and to access the RFP.