News
New Talent Joining Our Innovation Partnerships Licensing Team
3/3/2017To better serve our faculty and business clients, U-M Innovation Partnerships received funding to augment our staff with 3 new positions. We have recruited some exciting new talent to these and three other positions and we are pleased to introduce you to the newest members of our licensing team. Janani...
FlexDex begins shipping low-cost surgical tool designed to replace robotic system
3/1/2017New applications for robots seem to be in the news every day, but Ann Arbor-based FlexDex Surgical’s new surgical tool increases surgeons’ flexibility and reduces costs by taking a robot out of the equation. The mechanical platform, which allows surgeons to more easily make sutures inside the body during minimally...
New low-cost surgical instrument moves like a surgeon’s hand
2/22/2017In an era of spiraling healthcare cost concerns, a new $500 surgical instrument developed at the University of Michigan is vying to take the place of a $2 million robot for certain minimally invasive procedures. U-M startup FlexDex Surgical’s first product—a simple, ergonomic and intuitive “needle driver” for stitching inside...
Ann Arbor tech startup launches cancer diagnosis tool cataloging 3.3 million medical articles
2/22/2017Ann Arbor health-tech startup Genomenon has launched a new, first-of-its-kind software to help medical professionals and geneticists research millions of medical publications more quickly for faster diagnoses. Launched last week, Genomenon CEO Mike Klein says Mastermind automates searching and sorting through articles on genetic variants, so pathologists and research laboratories...
Genomenon’s Software Seeks to Give Geneticists Faster Insights
2/22/2017Genomenon, a University of Michigan spinout developing analytics and data visualization software for the genomics industry, released its first product last week: software designed to simplify the process of interpreting gene variants. Called Mastermind, the software is a tool that automatically combs through millions of journal articles and medical publications;...
FlexDex Surgical: Creating a Breakthrough in Laparoscopic Instruments
2/20/2017The introduction of minimally invasive surgery in the early 1980s marked a new era in medicine. Also known as laparoscopic surgery, this technique of performing operations through small incisions results in fewer complications, shorter procedures and faster recovery times. But for more than two decades, laparoscopy was hindered by available...
Intelligent Vision Systems: State-of-the-Art Ice Detection Technology
2/13/2017Climate and Space Science Professor Nilton Renno loves solving problems. And as he readily admits, “I’m always looking for problems related to my research interests that are fun to work on and can have a significant impact on society.” Renno’s first startup, Electric Field Solutions, was based on electric eld...
In Bid to Go National, Court Innovations Launches Capital Campaign
1/31/2017Court Innovations, a startup spun out of the University of Michigan’s law school, has steadily grown since it publicly launched in 2015. The company, whose software helps people resolve traffic tickets and other minor civil infractions online or via smartphone app, is using an innovative new model to raise capital...
Fresh Off Another Banner Year, U-M Innovation Partnerships Looks Ahead to 2017
1/31/2017In 2016, the University of Michigan’s Office of Technology Transfer, which is tasked with bringing the school’s inventions and startups to market, had another banner year: $23 million in licensing revenues and a record 173 licensing agreements. With fresh leadership at U-M’s Venture Center; programs stoking innovation, such as Train...
Innovation is for Finishers: Many researchers are hoping startups will help get their ideas to the marketplace— and universities are trying to help.
1/31/2017Pacemakers, insulin, Breathalyzer tests, computers and MRI machines are university developments. All of these technologies were so obviously important that they were adopted long before universities began making an effort to get laboratory inventions out the door. But many more sat on the shelves. One of these was a plan...
Lycera Announces Initiation of Phase 1/2a Study ARGON of Immuno-Oncology Candidate LYC-55716 in Patients with Advanced Solid Tumors
1/4/2017Lycera Corp., a privately held biopharmaceutical company developing breakthrough immune modulatory medicines, announced today the initiation of a Phase 1/2a clinical trial of the Company’s novel immuno-oncology therapeutic candidate LYC-55716, in patients with advanced, relapsed, or refractory solid tumors. “We continue to make rapid and significant progress in the development...
SDIC Fund Leads $72M Series B Round In Ascentage Pharma
12/30/2016A fund under China’s SDIC Fund Management Co. has led a RMB500 million (US$72 million) series B funding round in Ascentage Pharma, a Jiangsu province-based biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the discovery of targeted small-molecule cancer therapeutics. A number of new investors, all of which are RMB funds, and existing investors...