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On January 31st BioEngage hosted an Internship & Job Recruiting Mixer. There were 12 companies in attendance including: Seattle Genetics, Just Biotherapeutics, Intellectual Ventures, Nexgenia, Inc., Verasonics, Inc., COPE Health Solutions, Peace Corps, Juno Therapeutics, FUJIFILM SonoSite, Inc., and InBios International, Inc. Around 90 students attended this event, making it the most successful student-focused BioEngage event thus far.

Through the course of the evening students and company reps spent time mingling and networking in the Foege lobby over refreshments and light hor d’oeuvres. 6 companies (Seattle Genetics, Nexgenia, Verasonics, Inc., Juno Therapeutics, COPE Health Solutions and Peace Corps) also gave brief 10 minute “info sessions” to discuss their company and current job and internship openings. Many students were able to make valuable connections with the companies in attendance.

Check the website frequently for more information on upcoming BioEngage events…

On November 15^th, twenty undergraduate and graduate bioengineering students attended an information and Q&A session from Adaptive Biotechnologies. Three scientists, including an alumnus of the inaugural UW Bioengineering undergraduate class, discussed in detail Adaptive’s immunosequencing technology and applications, such as its new Adaptive Therapeutics division. They highlighted Adaptive’s many academic collaborations, as well as collaborations with big pharma and biotech companies.

Students were also treated to a breadth of information and tips about job-seeking, working at Adaptive, and career paths for bioengineers during a detailed Q&A session. The fast-growing company, with currently over 200 employees, is looking to hire at multiple levels. Current full-time openings include a computational biologist and a statistical geneticist, both within Adaptive’s Computational Biology group. While no formal internship positions are listed, Adaptive is open to hiring interns on a case-by-case basis through as late as June, and encourages students at all levels to actively approach them.

Adaptive Biotechnologies previously visited UW Bioengineering during BioEngage’s technical symposium in February 2016. BioEngage plans to continue to engage with Adaptive through future visits and symposiums.

For Startup Week, we are looking at what health care transformation means to startups

Lee Huntsman, UW President Emeritus and Seattle health care visionary, will lead a panel discussion titled “Startups in an Age of Health Care Transformation: Changing Expectations and Tactics.”

Panelists:

• Mike McSherry – CEO, Xealth
• Anisha Sood – Principal and Assistant Director of Strategic Investments, Cambia Health Solutions
• Patrick Yung – Co-Founder, Chairman & CEO, Rejuvenly

Register Now

The event is part of the Under the Boughs series, which combines the focus and topical breadth of the UW Health Innovators Collaborative with the community of innovators being developed at the Cambia Grove.

Sponsored by BioEngage, an outreach effort of UW Bioengineering, Under the Boughs brings together the Health Innovators Collaborative and the Cambia Grove communities for inspired dialog that seeks to provide deep insights, fresh ideas and community connections.

A group of Bioengineering students, research scientists, and faculty visited Nanostring’s facility in South Lake Union on June 2, 2016. The visit included several talks by key Nanostring employees from Manufacturing, Quality Control, and R&D departments, with two UW alumni describing their paths into industry. The employees walked the attendees through their labs and facilities, allowing students to step in, play with their devices, and understand the process of commercialization. Attendees were able to chat with employees over lunch, to understand what opportunities are available and what working in industry means. BioEngage plans to continue similar visits to industries and engage with Nanostring in the future.

The BioEngage Noninvasive Therapy and Diagnosis sector held their first technical symposium on May 25, 2016 titled, “Imaging Tools Delivering on the Promise of Precision Cancer Treatment.”

Nine companies and over a dozen UW labs participated, represented all imaging modalities.  Industry representatives attended from both large companies such as Carl Zeiss, GE, Philips and Siemens as well as from smaller companies including Mirabilis Medical, Nova TheraNostics, Optovue and Tasso.

The symposium encompassed technical talks, student poster presentations, panel discussions, and networking time to foster collaborations between UW and industry.  The sessions focused on molecular and targeted contrast agents, integrated imaging and therapy, and assessing response to therapy.  The panelists discussed how to maximize industry-academia partnerships and how to overcome barriers to clinical acceptance.

The overall feedback from the event was very positive, with particular appreciation for the opportunity to network and learn about UW Bioengineering!

The BioEngage team sincerely thanks all attendees who presented talks and posters, and who made the event a success. Upcoming BioEngage events are being planned for 2016. To learn more about program benefits, to be invited to future events and help BioEngage plan activities that would benefit the community, contact the BioEngage team.

UW Bioengineering’s BioEngage program seeks to build mutually beneficial relationships with biomedical industry, with the goal of increasing engagement of BioE students and faculty with the biomedical translation-commericalization sector (for-profit companies, nonprofit organizations, entrepreneurs and investors). 

TALKS PRESENTED:

• UW uWAMIT: MNP-bPANI system and molecular imaging (Junwei Li, Soon Joon Yoon)
• Nova TheraNostics & UW: High-resolution MRI and IR diagnostic imaging enabled by a novel biocompatible & biodegradable nano-platform (Rodney Ho)
• UW Molecular Biophotonics Lab: Molecular biophotonics for cancer detection and surgical guidance (Jonathan Liu)
• Pun Lab: Microbubbles and targeted contrast agents (Suzie Pun and Kevin Tan)
• UW Human Photonics Lab: Multicolor molecular imaging in the human for GI cancer (Eric Seibel)
• Carl Zeiss Meditec, Inc.: Technology commercialization – OCT from research concept to mainstream product (Matt Everett)
• Philips: Challenges with X-ray guided multi-needle tumor ablation (Onno Wink)
• UW Radiation Oncology: Challenges and opportunities for imaging in radiation therapy (Matt Nyflot)
• Philips: Opening the blood brain barrier to deliver chemotherapy drugs to brain cancer (Jeff Powers)
• SCCA & UW: Advanced MRI to evaluate response to breast cancer therapy (Savannah Partridge)
• Optovue: Advanced MRI to evaluate response to breast cancer therapy (Utkarsh Sharma)
• Siemens R&D: Ultrasound fusion as the opportunity to deliver precision cancer treatment (Andy Milkowski)
• PET/X  & UW IRL: Quantitative dual-mode scanner for breast cancer therapy assessment (William Hunter)
• GE: Molecular contrast agents (Perry Frederick & Siavash Yazdanfar)

PANEL DISCUSSIONS:

Maximizing industry-academic partnerships

Moderator: Matt O’Donnell

• Erwin Berthier         VP of RND, Tasso Inc
• Matt Everett            Chief Scientist, Carl Zeiss Meditec Inc
• Perry Frederick        Research Manager – Western US, GE
• Rodney Ho                Chair of Scientific Advisory Board, Nova TheraNostics and Professor, UW
• Tom Matula             Director, UW CIMU
• Onno Wink               Clinical Scientist, Philips Healthcare

Barriers to clinical acceptance

Moderator: Ray Yueng

• Adam Alessio         Research Associate Professor, UW Radiology, Imaging Research Lab
• Sara St. James       Assistant Professor, UW Radiation Oncology
• Jonathan Liu           Assistant Professor, Molecular Biophotonics Lab
• Jessi Parsons          Clinical Science Manager, Mirabilis Medical, Inc.
• Matt Rielly               Clinical Research Board Regional Manager, Philips
• Utkarsh Sharma    Director, Advanced Development, Optovue

Health Innovators Collaborative, Cambia Grove partner to launch new interactive discussion series!

Sponsored by UW Bioengineering’s BioEngage, the Health Innovators Collaborative has partnered with Cambia Grove to launch a new interactive discussion series. The Health Innovators Collaborative promotes innovation in health care as the field adapts to profound change by offering opportunities for information exchange, education and collaboration. Cambia Grove is a community resource for innovators, entrepreneurs and regional stakeholders to explore solutions to health care challenges.

The “Under the Boughs” seminars will offer interactive discussions with leaders in health care. The series will examine the forces driving health care change, and the potential for innovation – technological, organizational, financial and political – to make a constructive difference.

Seminars will be held the third Thursday of each month at 4:00-6:00 p.m. at Cambia Grove, 1800 9th Ave, 2nd Floor in Downtown Seattle. The first seminar of autumn quarter will feature Carlos Pellegrini, MD, Chief Medical Officer of UW Medicine. Dr. Pellegrini’s talk will explore the frontier of value-based care. Read the talk abstract and Dr. Pellegrini’s bio.

For more information about upcoming seminars, please register for the Health Innovators Collaborative email list.