Media Advisory: U.S. Sen. Al Franken to visit Medical Devices Center
Contacts:
Preston Smith, University News Service, (612) 625-0552, smith@umn.edu
Rhonda Zurn, College of Science and Engineering, (612) 626-7959, rzurn@umn.edu
Marc Kimball, U.S. Sen. Al Franken’s Office, (651) 221-2649, marc_kimball@franken.senate.gov
WHO: U.S. Sen. Al Franken, University of Minnesota researchers, medical device industry representatives
WHAT: Tour of University of Minnesota’s Medical Devices Center and Minnesota Supercomputing Institute
WHEN: Saturday, Feb. 19, 12:30-1:45 p.m.
WHERE: U of M Medical Devices Center, Shepherd Lab, Room 583, 100 Union St. S.E., Minneapolis, and Minnesota Supercomputing, Walter Library, Room 125, 117 Pleasant St., S.E., Minneapolis
MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (02/18/2011) — U.S. Senator Al Franken will visit the University of Minnesota Medical Devices Center and the Minnesota Supercomputing Institute from 12:30-1:45 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 19. University researchers and medical device company representatives will explain how they use the center and what it has meant to their research and companies.
The University of Minnesota’s Medical Devices Center is the only center of its kind in the nation built specifically for designing, prototyping, and testing new medical devices. During the tour, Sen. Franken will see high-tech equipment that allows researchers to remotely view live surgeries in 3D, a computer-aided design precision-instruments area, and mechanical and electronics fabrication centers.
Sen. Franken also will talk with current and past participants of the Medical Devices Center’s Innovation Fellows Program, an intensive program for mid-career professionals to develop and test marketable medical devices. In just its first two and a half years, the program has produced 35 provisional patents, two start-up companies and one product license. As the second start-up to come out of the Fellows Program, Aria CV, Inc. is developing a novel approach to bring relief to patients suffering from pulmonary hypertension.
The tour will end at the University’s Minnesota Supercomputing Institute where researchers will see 3D demonstrations and learn about virtual medical device prototyping. Sen. Franken will be available to the media for a short time at the end of the tour.
Minnesota is a worldwide mecca of the medical devices industry with more than 500 FDA-registered medical device companies that employ tens of thousands of people.