Read the FFMI Newsletter online: View as Webpage
MARCH 7, 2022
Funding
Coming Soon - Frankel Innovation Initiative Call for Letters of Intent
The third round of the Frankel Innovation Initiative is about to kick off, with a call for Letters of Intent.

Made possible by a generous donation from the Maxine and Stuart Frankel Foundation, the Frankel Innovation Initiative is a $20 million fund that was established to support the research and development of life-saving therapies at Michigan Medicine, in collaboration with other institutions.

The fund offers one year of funding in the range of $250,000-$500,000, with the potential for multiple years of funding.
Frankel Innovation Initiative Spotlight - Molly Stout
A multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional team led by U-M's Molly Stout, M.D., M.S.C.I., is working on a device to help predict the timing of delivery and outcomes for preterm and term birth.

The project is in its second year of funding by the Frankel Innovation Initiative.
Kickstart Early-Stage Funding Award Proposals Due May 1
Made possible by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, U-M Innovation Partnerships, and U-M Fast Forward Medical Innovation (FFMI), Kickstart Awards offer early-stage funding to enable biomedical researchers across the state of Michigan to develop proof of concept for innovative technologies.

Applications due: Sunday, May 1
Funding amount: Up to $42,500 in direct costs

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 the MTRAC for Life Sciences or other research funding programs.

Questions? Contact Meghan Cuddihy, Ph.D., Commercialization Program Director, MTRAC for Life Sciences, at mcuddihy@umich.edu or 734-645-9153.
Commercialization Education
Sign Up Today! FFMI fastPACE Spring Cohort Registration Available
Do you have an innovative idea? Are you looking for funding, collaboration, and mentorship?

FFMI fastPACE is a project-based, experiential course designed to help academics launch new innovations, including medical devices/diagnostics, digital solutions, drugs, educational/training interventions, research tools, and many others.

The multi-week course, delivered completely online, matches innovators with expert teaching team members for guidance on the development of a business case for adoption, implementation, or commercialization.

Registration is now available for the Spring 2022 cohort, to be held virtually, beginning Friday, April 29. Sign up today! Registration closes on Friday, April 15 at 11:59pm.

Questions? Email Jon Servoss, FFMI Director of Commercialization Education.
Sign Up for Innovation Studio on March 15 & April 19
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:
  • innovation concepts
  • opportunities for commercialization education
  • funding resources
  • any other innovation concerns that faculty, staff, or trainees may have

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, March 15, and Tuesday, April 19, between 2:00pm-3:30pm. Space is limited.
Enroll Today! New Online Drug Discovery Guide Course Offers Unique Insight for Learner
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 Jon Servoss, Director of Commercialization Education.

Coming soon! An in-person companion course that teaches the fundamental stages of academic drug discovery through guest lectures and case studies.
Business Development
Videos Offer Helpful Advice on Interacting with Industry
The FFMI Business Development team is the first stop on the road to connecting U-M researchers and industry collaborators, with the ultimate goal to facilitate and drive industry-operated research at Michigan Medicine.

Looking to learn the basics of the business development process? Watch this video that provides the details of formulating and executing a research-business plan between an industry sponsor and U-M research investigator.

You can also check out our library of valuable videos that highlight the basics of interacting with industry, including "How to Pitch to Industry" and "The NDA: When, How, and PI Responsibilities."
FFMI Follow-Up
Frankel Innovation Initiative Winner on News Radio
Frankel Innovation Initiative award winner, Paul Cederna, M.D., was recently interviewed on WJR radio about his work with prosthetics. Dr. Cederna and Cynthia Chestek, Ph.D., have proposed a nerve recording solution applicable to virtually every person with an amputation.
Fifth Eye Receives FDA Clearance to Market AHI System
Michigan Translational Research and Commercialization for Life Sciences award winner, Fifth Eye, a provider of intuitive real-time clinical analytics, today announced the FDA provided clearance to market its second-generation clinical decision support software, the AHI System, to hospitals in the United States.

Hemodynamic instability, when left unnoticed or untreated, is a known cause of significant morbidity and mortality in critically ill or injured patients. AHI can detect hemodynamic instability in real-time from information embedded in an ECG signal alone.
Bulletin Board
Finding Funding: Identifying Opportunities & Scoping the Grants Landscape
Hosted by U-M Research Development & Proposal Services, library experts Judy Smith and Paul Barrow will help investigators at all levels use online tools to be proactive in identifying federal, state, and foundation research funding. Topics will include efficient searching of funding databases and setting up funding alerts. This webinar is open to anyone in the U-M research community.

Tuesday, March 8
12:00pm-1:00pm
Zoom
Register Today for 2022 Precision Health Symposium
Join Precision Health for a half-day, in-person/remote hybrid event with the theme "Advancing Responsible Healthcare Innovation Using Artificial Intelligence."

Wednesday, March 16
8:00am-12:00pm
NCRC Building 18 (Dining Hall) and Livestream

This event will focus on the transformative impact artificial intelligence and machine learning are having on precision healthcare.
Rogel Cancer Center Technology Showcase
Join Dr. Eric Fearon, Director of U-M's Cancer Center, and Rick Rogel for a webinar that gives an overview of two exciting technologies being developed at the University of Michigan - Novel Strategies for Cancer Immunotherapy (Dr. James Moon) and Targeting the Vulnerabilities of Cancer Cell Metabolism (Dr. Nouri Neamati).

Wednesday, March 16
12:00pm-1:00pm
Webinar
LHS Collaboratory Seminar Series
The March session of the LHS Collaboratory Seminar Series will focus on Network-Based Research. Attendees will learn more about PCORNet, the PaTH subnetwork, and U-M’s site within PCORNet/PaTH.

Tuesday, March 22
12:00pm-1:30pm
Zoom
Great Minds, Greater Discoveries (re)Launch
The entire biomedical research community is invited on Wednesday, March 23 at 2:00pm for a re-launch of “Great Minds, Greater Discoveries,” the Medical School’s strategic research plan. Originally announced in February 2020 and then paused because of the pandemic, “Great Minds, Greater Discoveries” is the multi-year plan that will offer focus and funding for the Medical School’s major research strategies.

Wednesday, March 23
2:00pm-3:00pm
Zoom
Precision Health Investigators Awards Launch Event
Join us for a lively, fast-paced series of presentations (three minutes each!) by our most recently funded project PIs. Hear what exciting challenges they're taking on, and see how multidisciplinary teams are working together to improve health. All attendees are then invited to share ideas about emerging and innovative areas of precision health.

Thursday, April 7
10:00am-11:30am
Virtual

Register today, and you'll receive a link to the event a few days in advance. Please watch your email for more information.
Pandemic Research Recovery Funding Available
The Medical School Office of Research has launched Pandemic Research Recovery, a needs-based funding program to assist faculty and trainees whose research has been impacted by COVID-19. It offers four different funding opportunities, up to $100,000 for faculty, $10,000 for post-docs, and $5,000 for graduate students. CLICK HERE for more details from the video of the research town hall when the program was launched. Pandemic Research Recovery is a “Great Minds, Greater Discoveries” program.
Valuing Our Own Program Announced
Valuing Our Own is a three-year program under “Support for Outstanding Research” that provides an annual return of 3% of the indirect cost (IDC) recovery from sponsored research expenditures to a faculty’s research discretionary account. Support for Outstanding Research, also known as SOAR, is a strategic investment fund that is jointly managed by the Medical School department chairs and Medical School Office of Research. It provides a framework for multi-year, strategic investment for the research enterprise beyond the scope that can be achieved alone by either central administration or individual department investments. Valuing Our Own is also a “Great Minds, Greater Discoveries” program.
Research Climate Council Call for Membership
A “Great Minds, Greater Discoveries” program, the Research Climate Council’s mission is to evaluate the Medical School research climate and formulate actionable recommendations to create a research environment where Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) faculty and trainees; women; and other marginalized groups can flourish.

The Council is currently accepting applications for membership, CLICK HERE.
Michigan Medicine Receives $10M to Rename Critical Care Institute After Field's Pioneer, Dr. Max Harry Weil
Michigan Medicine renamed its critical care research institute after Dr. Max Harry Weil, regarded by many as a father of critical care medicine, to recognize his family’s $10 million donation for advancing research and innovation.

The center is now known as the Max Harry Weil Institute for Critical Care Research and Innovation at the University of Michigan. Formerly the Michigan Center for Integrative Critical Care Research, the institute was founded in 2013 as a central hub for research and technology development across basic, clinical, information, and engineering sciences.
NIH Disclosure Support
NIH and other federal agencies have recently implemented more expansive requirements for disclosing other support and foreign affiliations. These requirements have increased what U-M previously reported to include outside U-M agreements and in-kind contributions, as well as require the provision of copies of agreements and new attestations on the Other Support. The Grant Services & Analysis team, working with the Office of Regulatory Affairs, has developed a number of new resources to help the research community navigate these new requirements.
Our Collaborators
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.
Fast Forward Medical Innovation is part of the Office of Research, where our mission is to foster an environment of innovation and efficiency that serves the U-M Medical School community and supports biomedical science from insight to impact.