July 29, 2019 By Karen Woolstrum Pitt researchers are passionate about their cutting edge discoveries that can positively impact lives. The Pitt Innovates Spotlight illuminates Pitt researchers and how they are translating some of their lab discoveries to real-world applications. For Alexis Nolfi, her quest to deliver a better therapy for dry eye is personal one. After visiting her own eye doctor for a persistent dry eye problem, Alexis and her doctor realized that available treatments, most of which are eye drops, were falling short of treating dry eye patients' symptoms. “What’s the first thing your optometrist or ophthalmologist does before they administer eye drops? They hand you a tissue. That’s because a majority of the product is not remaining on the eye but rather is being blinked out of the eye. The little bit that remains is quickly dissipated,” she said.
On Tuesday, May 14, the Innovation Institute will host a panel on Human Performance Innovation as part of Pittsburgh Life Sciences Week.
By Nitin Pachisia, Founding Partner of Unshackled Ventures. Nitin Pachisia is an entrepreneur-turned-investor and recently featured in Forbes for his work with Unshackled Ventures, but prior to this he experienced the myths and misinformation that many immigrant entrepreneurs face when forming a startup. Tens of thousands of entrepreneurs in the U.S. first started their long journeys in other countries. I should know. I am one of them. There are many different kinds of entrepreneurs and we should honor all of them. But I wanted to use this post to correct several myths associated with immigrant entrepreneurs. These entrepreneurs were selected by American institutions of higher learning or companies from a talent pool of billions of people; they truly represent some of the brightest minds in the entire world. But when they dream of starting a business in the US, a common misnomer I often hear is "I have been told that I cannot start my own company in the US while I am on a visa.” This is simply not true.
The Innovation Institute’s licensing and intellectual property professionals are critical to our mission of helping others achieve impact for their ideas and discoveries. They are typically the first contact that Pitt faculty, staff and students have with the Innovation Institute. Many of them have advanced degrees in science, business or law, and several have multiple such degrees.
The University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Medical Innovation (CMI) recently awarded grants totaling $165,000 to eight research groups through its Pilot Funding Program for Early Stage Medical Technology Research and Development. CMI, a University Center housed in Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering (SSOE), supports applied technology projects in the early stages of development with “kickstart” funding toward the goal of transitioning the research to clinical adoption. CMI also educates engineering students in medical product design and development through participation in real-world projects.