News

Diamond Kinetics Launches “Smart Bat” with Marucci

4/21/2017
Just in time for the start of baseball season, Pittsburgh-based U-M startup Diamond Kinetics and Baton Rouge-based sporting goods company Marucci Sports have announced a partnership to produce a new line of handcrafted maple bats that incorporate an array of emdedded “smart” sensors to collect, analyze and deliver swing data...

MEDC-Funded ADVANCE Program Launched

4/21/2017
A new “Gap” or “Proof of Concept” fund is being launched to provide resources to assess market needs and the potential for promising new university inventions, thanks to $1 million of funding support from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC). The University Early Stage Proof-of-Concept Fund program known as ADVANCE...

A New Path Forward for HistoSonics

4/21/2017
On March 13, 2017 University of Michigan startup HistoSonics Inc. announced the hiring of a new CEO, the closing of an $8.2 million Series B funding round, and a shift in focus toward the treatment of solid tumor cancers. According to the Ann Arbor based company, which launched in 2010...

Don Chaffin’s Groundbreaking Work in Ergonomics

4/21/2017
As part of his PhD thesis at the University of Michigan in 1967, Don Chaffin developed a 2D mechanical model of the human body. Little did he realize that what he created would be the basis for a powerful tool that would change the approach to ergonomics for decades to...

Nynex Therapeutics Launches in Cleveland

4/21/2017
In March, the Cleveland-based drug development accelerator BioMotiv, and the University of Michigan, announced the launch of the new startup Nynex Therapeutics. The company, which will be based in Cleveland, will develop first-in-class therapeutics to inhibit deubiquitinases, which are a class of proteases upregulated in cancer and associated with tumor...

Nynex Therapeutics, a new oncology startup, launches to target oncogenic proteins

3/16/2017
BioMotiv, a drug development accelerator associated with The Harrington Project, and the University of Michigan have launched a new startup, Nynex Therapeutics, to develop breakthrough drugs that inhibit deubiquitinases as a novel mechanism for therapeutic intervention in multiple difficult-to-treat cancers. Nynex’s innovative work builds on the substantial progress over the...

New Products Launched: FlexDex and Mastermind

3/3/2017
Two new products entering the market illustrate the continuing impact of U-M innovation. The FlexDex Needle Driver FlexDex Surgical, a Brighton, Michigan-based developer of surgical tools, has begun shipping its first product, a simple, ergonomic and intuitive “needle driver” for stitching inside the body. The commercial launch of the device...

Rubicon Genomics Acquired by Takara Bio USA

3/3/2017
U-M start-up Rubicon Genomics , a producer of genomic analysis kits, was sold in January to Mountain View, California-based Takara Bio USA Holdings, a subsidiary of the Japanese company Takara Bio, for a reported $75 million. “This acquisition builds on Takara Bio’s commitment to provide our customers with a broader...

U-M Startup Ripple Addresses Clinical Trial Bottleneck

3/3/2017
Created from technology developed at the University of Michigan, Ripple Science Corporation is focused on addressing a common pain point in research labs: recruiting and managing participants for clinical trials and translational research. Ripple co-founder Jacob Bonenberger explained, “Ripple isn’t tackling an uncommon problem — all researchers struggle with poor...

Venture Accelerator: Mekanistic Therapeutics

3/3/2017
Mekanistic Therapeutics, a startup company focused on the development of cancer therapeutics, will soon move into the U-M Innovation Partnerships Venture Accelerator, where company founders Drs. Judith Sebolt-Leopold and Christopher Whitehead will progress with their clinical trial development and fundraising efforts. In their University of Michigan lab, Sebolt-Leopold and Whitehead,...

3-D Printed Orthotics

3/3/2017
Researchers at the U-M Orthotics and Prosthetics Center have developed a new cyber manufacturing system to design and produce custom orthotics and prosthetics. The system, which incorporates both optical scanners and 3D printers, has been shown to produce better-fitting, lighter assistive devices in a fraction of the time it takes...

FlexDex begins shipping low-cost surgical tool designed to replace robotic system

3/1/2017
New 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...