News

Boston Scientific buys U-M startup Securus for $40M to add to heart imaging lineup

4/6/2018
Medical device giant Boston Scientific has acquired Securus Medical Group, a startup with FDA-cleared technology that measures and images temperature in the body during heart rhythm procedures. Marlborough, MA-based Boston Scientific (NYSE: BSX) said Tuesday that it paid $40 million up front for the stake in Securus that it did...

TIME: U-M’s nasal flu vaccine, FluMist, is set to come back next year

3/21/2018
After a two-year hiatus, the nasal flu vaccine is set to return to doctors’ offices next year. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted 12 to 2 on Wednesday to return the nasal spray to the CDC’s list of recommended vaccines for the 2018-2019 flu season. Pending final approval...

U-M startup ViewPoint Therapeutics raises $35 Million in Series B financing

3/16/2018
ViewPoint Therapeutics, Inc., a privately-held biotechnology company pioneering the development of crystallin stabilizers to prevent and treat cataracts and presbyopia, today announced the closing of a $35 million Series B financing. The financing was led by The Rise Fund with participation from Novo Holdings A/S. Additional participants included ViewPoint’s existing...

U-M startup Diamond Kinetics releases PitchTracker for baseball pitching data

3/16/2018
Diamond Kinetics has expanded beyond its roots as a bat sensor company with a new smart baseball and PitchTracker app to collect data on an athlete’s pitching mechanics. A small sensor is embedded into the core of each baseball and generates six metrics on every throw: velocity, spin rate, extension...

Bose launches $50M fund for startups integrating its new audio-focused AR tech, invests in U-M mems microphone startup Vesper

3/16/2018
The high-end audio technology company Bose is getting into the augmented reality game with a new product and a $50 million fund devoted to startups that will develop services for its new platform. While most of the industry is focused on a visually augmented experience, Bose is most concerned with...

Censys, Mapping the Internet One Device at a Time

3/16/2018
Let’s go back in history for a moment, back to 2015: Security researchers from Austrian security company SEC Consult found that various connected devices, such as home routers, network storage devices, IP cameras, and mobile- and Internet-connected phones, were re-using the same hard-coded cryptographic keys. The researchers extracted more than...

Car and Driver: “Here’s why big automakers are investing in May Mobility, an autonomous-shuttle startup”

3/5/2018
Standing on a street corner in downtown Detroit on a brisk winter afternoon, Kevin Bopp watched in frustration as a large bus pulled to a nearby curb and dropped off its lone passenger. “That’s one of ours,” he said, wincing toward the bus. He’s not happy about that fact. Bopp...

U-M digital health startup AlertWatch announces strategic partnership with Qualcomm

2/28/2018
February 28, 2018, Ann Arbor, Michigan. AlertWatch, an Ann Arbor—based digital health firm, today announced a major strategic relationship with Qualcomm life. Through the relationship, Qualcomm Life made a seven figure financial investment in AlertWatch and obtained the exclusive, world-wide rights to market the AlertWatch:OR product. AlertWatch supports anesthesia providers...

Twice-a-day Cerdelga is slightly better than once-a-day regimen for Gaucher, trial shows

2/28/2018
Two Cerdelga (eliglustat) pills a day are slightly better than one pill a day of the same strength at helping Gaucher type 1 patients maintain a stable disease, a Phase 3 clinical trial shows. The therapy’s maker, Genzyme, conducted the trial, which involved only patients whose disease had become stable...

Synovis Surgical, a division of Baxter, licenses Arterial Everter transplant surgery technology from U-M

2/28/2018
A Better Way to Connect Arteries: How Coulter’s Newest Licensed Product Is Making Its Way from the Classroom to the Clinic When reconstructive surgeons repair a breast after mastectomy or a severely injured leg after a car accident, they often move tissue harvested from one part of the body to...

BMW and Toyota are investing in a start-up that makes self-driving shuttles

2/27/2018
Given technical and regulatory challenges, it may take a decade before fully self-driving cars can be used on U.S. highways. But May Mobility, a start-up based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, has already put its self-driving shuttles to work in downtown Detroit. Founded in 2017 by auto engineers Edwin Olson, Alisyn...

Bringing Self-Driving Shuttles to the Streets: Welcome Aboard, May Mobility

2/27/2018
When asked by reporters and other industry watchers to predict when self-driving vehicles will appear on our public roadways, my answer is generally that it will be sooner than we think, but not everywhere we’d like. Fully-autonomous Level 5 driving is still years away, where a vehicle is able to...