On Tuesday, 11 biomedical 

projects from across the state 
of Michigan were selected as 
recipients of the Innovation 
Hub awards. Fast Forward 
Medical Innovation, a unit 
within the Medical School’s 
Office of Research at the 
University 
of 
Michigan, 

grants the awards. More than 

$1.8 million in total has been 
allocated 
to 
health-related 

research projects statewide, 
ranging 
from 
automated 

brain tumor diagnosis using 
convolutional neural networks 
to 
reversing 
synchronized 

circuitry to treat tinnitus in 
humans.

The 
awards 
are 

funded 
by 
the 
Michigan 

Translational Research and 
Commercialization for Life 
Sciences 
Innovation 
Hub, 

which is managed by Fast 
Forward Medical Innovation 
and funded by the University 
and the Michigan Economic 
Development Corporation.

The 
MTRAC 
Innovation 

Hub 
began 
solely 
as 
a 

University program in 2014 
but has since expanded to the 
entire state of Michigan. It has 
an operating budget of over $4 
million.

One 
project 
which 
was 

granted 
the 
award 
is 
a 

University 
research 

team led by Susan Shore, 
a professor within the 
University’s Department of 
Otolaryngology-Head and 
Neck Surgery. The team 
is developing a device to 
treat tinnitus, a condition 
that causes a ringing in the 
ears and affects 15 percent 
of Americans. They have 
conducted 
successful 

trials on guinea pigs and 
are starting to work with 
humans.

“This tells us a lot about 

how the circuitry in the 
brain changes after noise 
damage and tells us how 
the auditory system works 
in general, so that can end 
up helping other kinds of 
hearing disorders as well,” 
Shore said in January.

Howard 
Petty, 

a 
professor 
of 

Ophthalmology 
and 

Visual Sciences, is another 
recipient of the Innovation 
Hub award. Petty is the 
principal 
investigator 

of a University research 
team working to improve 

ocular cancer therapy with 
semiconducting nanoparticles.

“In our preliminary studies, 

we have a couple papers on 
this. 
We 
have 
developed 

nanoparticles that generate 
toxins and what we can do is 
we can inject them into the 
eye and the nanoparticles 
have been developed so we can 
target the tumor cells in the 
eye,” Petty said.

In the future, Petty said 

he wants to make the drug 
available to human patients.

“What we’re going to be 

able to do with the money is 
get enough publications and 
data that if it works well in 
treating mice, we’ll be able 
to use it as an investigational 
drug,” Petty said. “The goal is 
to try to make this available to 
patients, and this will provide 
us, 
between 
fundamental 

research and clinical research, 
it will help us cross that gap.”

In 
early 
January, 
the 

finalists 
– 
whose 
initial 

proposals 
were 
due 
in 

September 
– 
gathered 
in 

downtown 
Ann 
Arbor 
to 

present their project proposals 
at the annual meeting of the 
external 
MTRAC 
oversight 

committee.

Those selected, spanning as 

far as Michigan Technological 
University to the University, 
received 
individual 
awards 

ranging 
from 
$75,000 
to 

$250,000 
with 
the 
goal 

of 
helping 
their 
products, 

which are already partially 
developed, reach the market 
and help patients as soon as 
possible.

2A — Thursday, February 15, 2018
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

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WEDNESDAY:

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News

Ky
@kyliebreaa

Okay umich, I get it. you’re 
having a fire drill, but I’m 
freezing my ass off and I 
would really enjoy being 
inside now.

Kristen
@kristencrosss

neing part of the psych 
depoartment at umich means 
running into colleagues in the 
atrium as you’re all marveling 
at the new tables and chairs

amanda
@aefm_

Today i learned that valentine 
day is also be rude as hell to 
your local bakery employee

tdm
@teemitch_

you wanna see road rage? 
put me in 5pm traffic 
downtown ann arbor

Joe
@j_spag

In my accounting class today 
some guy saw a girl with ash on 
her forehead for Ash Wednesdsay 
and the guys next to me were 
trying to figure out what it was. 
One guy goes “I think it’s for 
singles awareness or something”

Kyle
@kessenma

I made a friend in my stats class 
and he told me he puts wine in his 
water bottle for his pottery class, 
and tbh being tipsy playing with 
clay for college credit sounds so 
ideal.

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THURSDAY:
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Researchers at University awarded 
with grants, state recognition for studies 

Innovation Hub acknowledges biomedical teams working on drug therapies 

ZOE BAXTER

Daily Staff Reporter

AARON BAKER/Daily

WOLVE RINE OF THE WE E K

What is your ideal 
Valentine’s Day date?
“Going to Skyzone 
and jumping in 
trampolines with 
my significant 
other, grabbing 
something to eat, 
and then watching 
a movie.” 

LSA junior Nate Baker

