 |
|
|
(from left) UMMS Chancellor Collins, Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito, UMass Lowell Chancellor Jacquie Moloney and UMass President Marty Meehan attended a ribbon cutting for the expanded M2D2 and new Innovation Hub incubators. |
More than 100 people joined UMass Medical School Chancellor Michael F. Collins, Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito, UMass President Marty Meehan and UMass Lowell Chancellor Jacquie Moloney on Tuesday, Oct. 6, to celebrate the official opening of two new biomedical manufacturing incubator facilities in downtown Lowell. The expansion of the Massachusetts Medical Device Development Center along with the creation of the UMass Lowell Innovation Hub (iHub) offer entrepreneurs co-working space and access to a variety of resources they need to get biomedical startups off the ground.
The new location is an expansion of both the space and resources available to medical-device entrepreneurs. The event marked a new milestone in the successful collaboration between UMass Medical School and UMass Lowell’s to spur growth and innovation in the technology and medical-device sectors.
“M2D2 is a wonderful coming together of the expertise of our medical school faculty—both in patient care and biomedical research—and the engineering expertise here on our sister campus in Lowell. Our specialties complement each other perfectly,” said Chancellor Collins. “Our medical school is committed to making a positive impact on human health and on the economic development in every region in the commonwealth.”
Founded in 2007, M2D2 continues its tradition of bringing engineering, business and prototyping expertise to medical-device startups. M2D2 has helped 100 companies secure $52 million in private equity funding and $6 million via federal and state grants. In 2011, M2D2 opened its first incubator in the Wannalancit Business Center adjacent to UMass Lowell’s East Campus. That facility is home to 15 companies.
“You have already set the example for others,” Polito said. “You have a model here that will translate to other parts of the state.”
“The University of Massachusetts system is not only providing facilities and expertise to help businesses in cutting-edge fields like those that will make the iHub and M2D2 home, it is educating their future employees,” President Meehan said.
Related links on UMassMedNow:
M2D2 helps great ideas become commercial products
Newsmaker: Guiding cardiac diagnoses
