CBID establishes Technology Accelerator Fund
The Department of Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University is pleased to announce that it has received funding from Johnson & Johnson to support innovative translational research and development activities, with a focus on medical device development.
The Johnson & Johnson Corporate Office of Science and Technology has provided $250,000 to establish the Technology Accelerator Fund, with matching funds to be provided from the Center for Bioengineering Innovation and Design (CBID) in Biomedical Engineering. The research and development interests of Johnson & Johnson encompass all fields of science and engineering that hold the promise of having a positive impact on human health.
CBID Design Teams will be able to competitively apply to the Technology Accelerator Fund (TAF) to support the costs associated with translating early innovative designs into high-quality prototype solutions. The TAF will help to further drive collaboration between translational clinicians, engineers, and students at Johns Hopkins.
CBID brings together biomedical engineering students, faculty members and industry mentors to invent and build novel solutions to existing problems in medical practice. CBID connects education, research, clinical practice, and commercialization.
“It is good to see that Hopkins Medicine and Johnson and Johnson have teamed up to support the innovation of our clinical faculty and engineering students. The CBID program is a unique resource for the creation of important new medical technologies.” stated Ed Miller, Dean and CEO of Hopkins Medicine.
“The Technology Accelerator Fund provides the resources needed for our design teams to get top quality prototypes built. The process of pitching the idea and initial design of the novel device to the TAF Board is extraordinary training for the students,” says Elliot McVeigh, professor and director of the Department of Biomedical Engineering.
The first applications to the TAF are expected to come in the fall of 2009 from incoming students enrolled in the new M.S.E. in Bioengineering Innovation and Design Program in the Department of Biomedical Engineering.
Nick Jones, Benjamin T. Rome Dean of the Whiting School of Engineering commented: “The CBID program gives our engineering students direct interaction with superb clinical faculty. These students have the opportunity to take on significant design problems that address real needs in medicine.”