Dear Colleagues,

2021 was another productive year for Fast Forward Medical Innovation (FFMI) as we continued to align our programs, offerings, and interactions with the virtual world. We invite you to browse our 2021 Annual Report.

Over the course of the year, our Business Development team helped U-M's biomedical faculty build and strengthen important industry connections to further their research. They played a key role in a number of exciting new projects, including being a part of the COVID-19 vaccine trials at U-M.

The Frankel Innovation Initiative, a $20 million gift from Maxine and Stuart Frankel that supports the research and development of transformative and life-saving therapies at Michigan Medicine, awarded $3 million in funding to six biomedical research projects in the second round of funding. These exciting and cutting-edge projects hold tremendous potential for significant patient impact and we are honored to administer this life-saving fund.

Although our Commercialization Education programs remained fully virtual, we've been able to expand our current offerings and develop new programs. It's been highly rewarding to watch the growth and results of our team's efforts.

The Michigan Biomedical Venture Fund, a collaborative effort between FFMI and the U-M College of Engineering's Center for Entrepreneurship, continued to build their impressive portfolio of biomedical startup companies with U-M IP or license.

2022 promises to be a year of exciting opportunities in biomedical innovation at the University of Michigan Medical School. The FFMI team is looking forward to contributing to this success by exploring and creating more opportunities for our colleagues, collaborators, and customers across the U-M campus, state, region, and nation.

Best Regards,

Bradley Martin, Ph.D.

Director

Fast Forward Medical Innovation

MTRAC Awards are a part of the MTRAC for Life Sciences Innovation Hub – a statewide program that accelerates the transfer of technologies from Michigan’s institutions of higher education to the private sector for commercialization.

Made possible by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, and co-managed by University of Michigan Innovation Partnerships and Fast Forward Medical Innovation, the awards provide mid-stage, translational research funding and resources for proof-of-concept and late-stage translational studies with a high potential of commercial success.

MTRAC awards funding up to $250K, with all awarded projects requiring a cost share from the investigator/institution. The deadline for this year's funding cycle is January 7, 2022. In addition to money, award winners receive regulatory guidance, business plan development, and mentorship from industry and investment experts.

Drug Discovery Guide is an online course designed for physician scientists, basic scientists, and postdoctoral and other trainees that teaches the individual steps and critical stages for any drug discovery project, with a particular focus on projects being conducted at the University of Michigan. The course is a collaboration between Fast Forward Medical Innovation and Michigan Drug Discovery, with support from Innovation Partnerships.

Drug Discovery Guide features 15 experts from across the U-M drug discovery ecosystem who instruct on four primary units: Introduction to Drug Discovery, Assessing Commercial Potential, Advancing Drug Discovery Projects, and Entering the Clinical Phase. The lessons concentrate primarily on small molecule therapeutics, however, many of the topics apply equally to other kinds of drugs, including antibodies and RNA.

The course can be navigated freely, allowing users to select the lesson topics that are especially pertinent to their research. A certificate of completion is available with the course.

Questions? Visit the website or contact Samantha Cook, Commercialization Education Coordinator.

Coming soon! An in-person companion course that teaches the fundamental stages of academic drug discovery through guest lectures and case studies. Join our newsletter to stay up-to-date on open enrollment.

The 2022 Frankel Cardiovascular Center (FCVC) Innovation Challenge will take place on May 19, 2022, from 3:00pm-5:00pm. Now in its 6th year, the FCVC Innovation Challenge is an annual pitch competition where teams can win up to $100,000 to fund ideas impacting cardiovascular care. In addition, Just Do It Awards are selected for low cost-low complexity ideas.

Ideas are welcome from anyone in the FCVC community: faculty, staff, trainees, patients, and family members. Submissions will be accepted from Thursday, January 13 to Thursday, February 17 through video or text format. See the 2022 Innovation Challenge page for additional details and to browse past projects, and email FCVCInnovation@umich.edu with any questions.

Looking for feedback and input on your biomedical innovation? Join the FFMI team for Innovation Studio, virtual office hours that give life science innovators of all levels the chance to address project needs, challenges, or questions.

Participants can get individual feedback on:

The Innovation Studio is available for 30-minute consultations via Zoom every third Tuesday of the month. The next available consultations will take place Tuesday, January 18, between 2:00pm-3:30pm. Space is limited.

Michigan Medicine ranked third of 100 leading healthcare institutions worldwide for scientific research in 2020, according to The Nature Index.

The Nature Index, a database compiled by Nature Research, provides an overview of research rankings for institutions and countries based on the number of scientific articles published in 82 high-quality natural-science journals. Michigan Medicine has resided within or near the top 10 every year since 2015, and it previously ranked as high as fifth on this list in 2018.

Asahi Kasei Pharma is calling for new proposals related to drug discovery research as part of its efforts for open innovation and to promote pharmaceutical research and development through enhanced cooperation with universities, research institutes, and enterprises around the world.

Proposals are solicited concerning new drug seeds (drug target and drug candidate) and technologies in the therapeutic fields of autoimmune disease, critical care medicine, neurodegenerative disease, pain and neuropathy, bone disease, and drug discovery platform technology.

Please contact Debra Grega, FFMI Business Development Director, for further details.

The second cycle of OVPR’s Large-Scale Center and Initiative Planning Grants and VPR-RAD Catalyst Grants Grants is open for applications.

PI-eligible faculty from all three U-M campuses can apply for the Large-Scale Center and Initiative Planning Grants. These grants aim to promote impactful interdisciplinary research and provide multi-unit teams with support for preparing and submitting competitive large-scale grant proposals in the range of $5M or more.

The VPR-RAD Catalyst Grants represent a partnership between OVPR and the research leadership within schools/colleges to aid in unit-wide experiments and projects to strengthen the research environment and advance unit-specific research goals. Proposals are to be submitted by the Research Associate Deans (RADs), who will administer them and be responsible for the funds. Proposals by several RADs in collaboration also are encouraged.

Research Development, part of Grant Services and Analysis in the Medical School Office of Research, is hosting Dr. Thomas Greenwell for an upcoming lunch and learn webinar. Dr. Greenwell is a Program Director at the National Eye Institute (NEI) at NIH, and he’ll talk about the role of an NIH Program Officer (PO) and provide “tips & tricks” for contacting and interacting with POs at NIH. He will also answer questions from event participants.

The 2022 Massey TBI Grand Challenge kicks off on March 3, and it's going to be bigger and better than ever. The Michigan Center for Integrative Research in Critical Care (MCIRCC) is thrilled to announce that, this year, there will be a grand total of $1 MILLION available to fund multidisciplinary teams proposing high-risk ideas and innovations addressing the golden hours of traumatic brain injury.

To better navigate the complexities of the U-M biomedical research enterprise, visit the Research Project Lifecycle. This interactive tool provides an overview of the resources available to you, not only within the Medical School Office of Research but also across the University of Michigan.