The Collaboratory was in full swing in the Spring quarter with project teams from Med 272 (Biodesign Innovation), ME 374 (Medical Device Design & Evaluation) and the Innovation Fellows using the brainstorming room, meeting spaces and prototyping studio.

Craig Milroy, tech director of the Collab, brought together a team of Teaching Assistants this past academic year to help staff the studio and select, purchase and organize equipment and materials. Stop by some time to see the progress.

Prototyping Studio Manager
We have recently employed Ian Halpern, a recent graduate of Stanford's Mechanical Engineering department, to help support and maintain the facility. Ian, with his knowledge of prototyping and medical devices, will assist student-users in understanding and implementing design and prototyping processes. We look forward to having Ian on board for the new academic year.

Med 272 (Biodesign Innovation) and ME 382 (Biomedical Device Design and Evaluation) finished their second terms with a joint poster presentation in association with the Biomechanical Engineering Distinguished Lecture Event. Several of the teams intend to pursue further research and development of their technologies.

Four new courses related to Biodesign were launched this term (see March Newsletter). The project- and team-based teaching approach is clearly gaining a major foothold in the area of biodesign/bioengineering. On July 26th faculty from the nine Biodesign-related courses at Stanford that are project/team-based met to share best practices and to develop a “map” for students to help plan their course selections. An informational session for students will be held early in the fall term.

Biodesign Innovation Fellows Place 2nd in BASES e-challenge
The four Biodesign Innovation Fellows capped an extraordinary year by earning a second-place finish in the BASES e-challenge (among a field of over 50 entries). Their invention, a new approach for the treatment of stroke complications, has garnered major attention and appears likely to be developed into a new clinical technology over the next few years.

In the meantime, the fellows are off on the next stages of their education and careers. Amrish Walke is enjoying an internship with ExploraMed, a local incubator. Evan Anderson is at the FDA for a fellowship in their Center for Devices and Radiological Health. Jeremy Johnson has accepted a position with Medtronic Vascular. Russell Woo has returned to complete his residency in Surgery here at Stanford.

Photo, l to r, Amrish Walke, Russell Woo, Evan Anderson, Jeremy Johnson

New Biodesign Innovation Fellows Starting
We have just welcomed the new 2004-05 Biodesign Innovation Fellows.

Shubhayu Basu’s primary area of interest has been in tissue engineering with a thrust towards investigating the effect of uniformity of tissue scaffold structure on cell growth, proliferation and apoptosis, with an overall goal of developing an implantable device for the treatment of Parkinson’s patients.

Corinne Bright is joining us from John Hopkins University with a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering. Corinne’s thesis work focused on developing a platform for drug and nonviral gene delivery to treat spinal cord injury.

While Ken Martin received an M.S. in Manufacturing Systems Engineering from Stanford he also worked for IDEO in Product Development, designing medical instruments for Bayer and Ventritex and is listed on 14 patents and a number of pending applications.

Henry Chen is currently a fellow in cardiovascular medicine at Stanford University Medical Center.

New Surgical Innovation Program
Prof. Tom Krummel (Emile Holman Chair and Surgeon-in-Chief, Packard Children’s Hospital) has recently announced the creation of a new Surgical Innovation Program. Mike Gertner MD, a surgeon, inventor and entrepreneur, has been recruited to Stanford to serve as the Associate Director. For 2004-2005, Daniel Riskin MD will join the program as its first fellow. Dan is in training as a general surgeon and has recently completed his MBA at MIT.

Innovation Fellowship 05-06 Accepting Applications
We are once again seeking outstanding applicants for our Innovation fellowship program for the 2005-06 academic year. We will be forming two teams, a cardiovascular team and a surgical team (see information above). The online application is now available; deadline is December 1, 2004.

Workbench Series DVDs
We recently released the fourth in our DVD series featuring John Abele. Please visit our Innovator's Workbench website to order the Abele DVD or any of the others already for sale there: Thomas Fogarty, Julio Palmaz and John Simpson. To order visit http://innovatorsworkbench.stanford.edu/store/.

2005 Workbench Series Planning Begins
Next year's Workbench series will feature prominent CEOs from the Medical Device Industry. Thus far we have been successful in inviting James Tobin of Boston Scientific, Ronald Dollens from Guidant and Guy LeBeau of Johnson & Johnson Cordis. The series will begin early 2005. To ensure that you are notified when the series begins, consider becoming a member of the Biodesign Network (register at http://bdn.stanford.edu/)

FDA/CDRH Medical Device Fellowship
Evan Anderson, a 2003-04 Biodesign Innovation Fellow, is one of the first to be awarded the new FDA Medical Device Fellowships. Evan will spend six months in Washington, D.C. with the CDRH branch of the FDA.

Patent Policy Review
Richard Popp and Paul Yock are continuing to work with the Dean and Associate Dean of Research and senior deans from the Schools of Engineering and Medicine to clarify the current operational policy on patenting by Stanford personnel.

IIP Seed Grants
The Biodesign leadership group has put forward a proposal to the Bio-X Interdisciplinary Initiatives Committee (IIP), chaired by Harvey Cohen, to consider a new technology seed program as a part of the Bio-X grants initiative.

To learn more about Stanford medical device technologies available for licensing, visit the Office of Technology's searchable online database and click on the "medical devices" category. More than 130 technologies are currently posted.

For more information about the Biodesign Tech Transfer/Network Group's activities, please contact Sandra Miller. sjmiller@stanford.edu; 650.736.1162

Web Portal Growing
The bmesource web portal (http://www.bmesource.org) is getting additions every quarter now and is up to over 5000 links total. Spring quarter produced over 300 links from students in various biodesign-related classes. Three more universities have signed on to be contributors: Carnegie Mellon, Johns Hopkins and University of Virginia.

BME-IDEA is also a Contest
The acronym BME-IDEA is being used as the name of a new national contest that has been initiated by the Alliance. The new BME-IDEA is Biomedical Engineering Innovation, Design and Entrepreneurship Award. The contest, co-sponsored by NCIIA, BMES, the Council of Chairs in BME, and Medical Device and Diagnostics Magazine, is being launched this month. Student teams in BME programs throughout the United States will compete for a cash award to be presented at the October, 2005 BMES meeting.

SSB recently released its spring quarter publication of the popular “Stanford Biomedicine Quarterly”. See ssb.stanford.edu. Advertising spots are available for future issues. Contact Andrew An (aan@stanford.edu) for more info.

1. Keep informed! Register as a member of the Biodesign Network (BDN) at http://bdn.stanford.edu. There is no fee and members can view a wealth of online resources, including the member database, job postings on the Opportunities page, news and events.
2. Find a job! Register as an alumni on the Biodesign Job Resource and view job postings targeted to the Stanford community. Go to: http://www.aftercollege.com/stanford/biodesign
3. Save money! Biodesign alumni will receive discounted rates when registering for Biodesign-organized events.

Three new faculty members have been selected to join the department: Jennifer Cochran, formerly of MIT, Karl Deisseroth of Stanford and Stephen Quake, previously at Cal Tech, will be joining the department this fall as the academic year begins. Information regarding the department is available on the website: http://bioengineering.stanford.edu/.

Eighteen students have been accepted into the Bioengineering Department's Graduate Program for 2004-05.