Ever wonder how universities help to create the cutting-edge medical devices and technologies you might see in the hospital or your doctor’s offices? This week Drexel offers an inside look at the process of taking scientific research from the lab to the world. Biomedical Engineering Week, from May 19-22, is the University’s inaugural celebration of biologically inspired innovation and research. The week will showcase some of the best work and brightest minds from Drexel’s School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems.
The week will focus on translational research and the startup companies that have risen from the University’s biomed program, which is a fitting theme for the programming as much of the Drexel technology that’s made it to the marketplace has come from the area of biomedical engineering.
Director of the school, Banu Onaral, PhD, recently interviewed with Science Translational Medicine about the challenges of bringing scientific developments and technology to the marketplace.
One of Drexel’s goals is to make the leap -to commercializing their work, or creating a startup company- a bit easier for its faculty and students to pull off.
Drexel Ventures’ Innovation Fund is one step toward this end. Administered by the Office of Technology Commercialization, Drexel Ventures picked four projects for its first round of proof-of-concept funding this fall.
For several years now, the School of Biomedical Engineering has been a leader in partnering with the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation, to support projects with the intent of getting them into the marketplace.
The Coulter-Drexel Translational Partnership Program already boasts a number of success stories, which will be on display during Biomedical Engineering Week, including:
- A non-invasive breast cancer detection device
- A wound healing monitor
- A device that can determine whether someone is having a heart attack
Lectures, seminars and expos throughout the week will give participants a better look at Drexel’s translational research process and offer insights on developing research for the market, starting a business and identifying the many locally available resources for this work.
For a schedule of the week’s events visit: http://biomed.drexel.edu/new04/BMEW2014/
