BD Events

No Job's Too Big, No Job's Too Small: Successfull Collaboration Comes in All Shapes and SizesIncreased partnerships between academia and industry will play a key role in supporting the new UMHS Strategic Research Initiative. And in an environment of shrinking commercial funding and increasingly uncertain regulation, creative collaboration with industry can mean the difference between a therapy stalling in the lab or making its way to market and the opportunity to impact human health.  Over 150 members of the southeastern Michigan life sciences "ecosystem" joined the BD team and BioArbor for a panel discussion examining the current state of innovation and successful, real-world collaborations. Panel members included Arik Anderson, Vice President of Product Development at Terumo Cardiovascular Systems; Tom Porter, Founder and General Partner at Trillium Ventures; David Tice, Senior Scientist at MedImmune; and Kevin Townsend, Medical Outcomes Specialist at Pfizer.

Improve Your Packaging: How to Prepare Yourself to Be the Best Candidate for a Job in IndustryThe BD team celebrated National Postdoc Appreciation Week with a special session attended by 70+ U-M postdocs and grad students at NCRC.  A panel of industry leaders offered attendees valuable insights on what it takes to conduct a successful job search in today's competitive life science employment market, and many postdocs remained to practice their networking skills with bioscience and business leaders at subsequent "Successful Collaboration Comes in All Shapes and Sizes" event.

Fast Forward at Researchpalooza 2012! Over 100 Medical School faculty and staff stopped by to take a spin at top-speed with our fun race cars and learn more about how strategic partnerships are helping to "fast forward" the new UMHS Strategic Research Initiative. Plus Kelly Berch from the Ob/Gyn Department was the winner of our Speedway Gas gift card prize drawing!

"Driving a Genomics Revolution Through Open Source Innovation" with Special Guest Dr. Eric SchadtThe idea of sharing risks and rewards to better the welfare of humankind is certainly inviting, but is it really possible to navigate across various stakeholder interests and collaborate effectively? And when the next "big idea" comes are the benefits shared? Over 200 guests from the local life science and business communities heard more about these questions, and more, at an event sponsored by BioArbor and UMMS Business Development. Special guest speaker Dr. Eric Schadt, co-founder of Sage Bionetworks, Director of the Institute for Genomics and Multiscale Biology, and Chair of the Dept. of Genetics and Genomics Sciences at Mt. Sinai Medical School and Dr. Brian Athey, Chair of U-M's new Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics and chairman of tranSMART, engaged in a lively conversation around the increasing move to novel partnerships and open source models of innovation. Together, the two experts painted a clearer picture of the promise that genomics offers humankind, and the hope for unprecedented future biomedical innovations.

Meet the Xconomists Reception "How are you driving innovation in Michigan?" That was the buzz among 125+ guests at "Meet the Xconomists," a reception hosted by Xconomy and co-hosted by the BD team in the Atrium of Building 520 at the North Campus Research Complex. View the video of observations on innovation from guests including U-M research faculty and entrepreneurial colleagues from across southeastern Michigan. Guest Xconomists from both coasts also joined in the robust networking at the event, which was co-sponsored by the Office of the Vice President for Research, UMMS Office of Research, College of Engineering, COE Center for Entrepreneurship, Office of Technology Transfer, Business Engagement Center, Medical Innovation Center, Michigan Institute for Clinical & Health Research, and NCRC.

Patent Reform Is Finally Here—Are You Prepared? More than fifty years since the last update to the patent system, Congress recently passed the "America Invents Act" (H.R. 1249). Over 50 guests had the opportunity to take a closer look at patent reform at the October BioArbor meeting sponsored by BD at Ann Arbor Spark Central. A panel of experts including Robin Rasor, U-M Director of Licensing; Rick Brandon, U-M Associate General Counsel; Eric Sosenko, Partner at Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione; and Hans Sauer, Associate General Counsel for Intellectual Property at the Biotechnology Industry Organization lead a lively discussion of the ramifications of patent reform for inventors and entrepreneurs, and delved into how the act will impact bioinnovation, locally and globally.

Researchpalooza 2011 "Got Research?" was the question of the day at the BD table during Researchpalooza, the annual event hosted by the Office of Research in conjunction with the UMHS Ice Cream Social. Alongside 53 other exhibiting offices and labs, the BD team enticed hundreds of Medical School faculty and staff with fresh-baked cookies and had many great conversations about how our office can connect researchers to strategic partners.

An Evening with Dr. Jeffrey LeidenWith opening remarks by Gary Glick, Ph.D. and Julia Owens, Ph.D. of Lycera, Dr. Jeffrey Leiden shared his unique perspective on the life sciences industry at this event sponsored by BioArbor and UMMS Business Development. Currently the Managing Director of Clarus Ventures in Cambridge, MA, Dr. Leiden was President and COO of Abbott Laboratories and held numerous prestigious academic appointments, including Professor of Medicine at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the U-M where he studied the transcriptional regulation of cardiovascular and immune cell development. He shared many of the lessons learned over a distinguished career, as well as where the industry is and should be heading today.

Bridging the Gap Between Biotechnology Companies and Large Pharma With introductory remarks by Dr. Pescovitz, Dr. Peter Corr, former Pfizer Vice President and currently General Partner in Celtic Therapeutics, talked about the fast-changing world of pharmaceutical R&D and the opportunities that exist for emerging biotech companies at this event co-sponsored by BioArbor and BD. Over 100 faculty and other guests from the local life sciences community learned more about how large pharmaceutical companies are moving away from an R&D organization with in-house capabilities to a "discovery cluster" model.

Venture Accelerator Launch and Open House The Office of Technology Transfer launched the Venture Accelerator at the North Campus Research Complex (NCRC), where UMMS spin off Life Magnetics is the inaugural tenant. Business Development and the Business Engagement Center, co-located at the NCRC, also participated in the Open House highlighting the launch. Over 300 guests from across southeastern Michigan learned more about the Venture Accelerator and it's innovative mission to offer offices, lab space, and business services to start-ups connected to U-M.

UMMS Faculty Win Big at Accelerate Michigan Members of the BD team volunteered at Accelerate Michigan, an international business plan competition highlighting the state as a robust venue for innovation and business opportunity. Hosted at the North Campus Research Complex, 279 companies competed for $1 million in cash prizes, with Armune BioScience taking home the $500k grand prize. Armune BioScience produces a new prostate cancer screening product developed by UMMS's own Arul Chinnaiyan and David Beer, plus several of the semi-finalists also had ties to the Medical School:

• Compendia Bioscience, Arul Chinnaiyan and Dan Rhodes
• Hygieia, Israel Hodish
• ImBio, Brian Ross
• Life Magnetics, Brandon McNaughton
• OcuSciences, Victor Elner and Howard Petty
• Vir(Sn), Michael O'Donnell

The Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition targeted mid-to-late-stage business start-ups with potential to generate an immediate impact on Michigan's economy, as well as student concepts with longer-term business viability.

Business Development & Xconomy Host Regional Innovation Leaders The Business Development team organized a reception with Xconomy, an e-journal providing timely and insightful news about the personalities, companies, and technology trends that best exemplify the innovation economy. Attended by over 100 U-M faculty, as well as leaders in the finance and foundation realms of SE Michigan, the networking reception at the North Campus Research Complex (NCRC) was the official launch of Xconomy's new Detroit bureau. The event was also co-hosted by several other U-M organizations, including MICHR, the College of Engineering Center For Entrepreneurship, the Ross School of Business Zell Lurie Institute, the Medical Innovation Center, the NCRC, and the Office of the Vice President for Research.

Abbott Laboratories and Accelerating the Innovation Pipeline BioArbor and the Business Development team hosted Murali Gopalakrishnan, William Kohlbrenner, and Daryl Sauer from Abbott's Global External Research Organization for a workshop at the North Campus Research Complex. Faculty and researchers were able to share in a discussion of the intriguing question: how do we accelerate the innovation pipeline? The Abbott Team talked about novel forms of collaboration with both academia and the entrepreneurial community in which Abbott, a $30B global life science company, has engaged.

400+ Connect with Business Development at Researchpalooza September 15 dawned a beautiful day and found the Business Development team staffing a table along with dozens of labs and offices at the first-ever "Researchpalooza." Organized by the UMMS Office of Research to coincide with the annual Health System Ice Cream Social, over 400 faculty and staff stopped by to visit with the BD team and complete our survey about how to enhance the culture of innovation at UMMS.