Ellis Meng displays the implantable medication-delivery system she developed. (Univ. of Southern California)
A biomedical engineering professor at University of Southern California in Los Angeles has received an Innovation Corps award from National Science Foundation to help bring to market research from her lab. The six-month $50,000 grant — one of the first group of Innovation Corps awardees announced last month by NSF — will help USC’s Ellis Meng commercialize an implantable medication pump.
Meng’s primary research interests are the development of micro- and nanotechnologies for electrochemical analysis of biological materials and fluids. The miniature pump resulting from her research can meet immediate needs in the life sciences laboratory market, particularly for pre-clinical studies to deliver doses of test compounds in animals.
The device is scalable, however, for potential human health care, to help patients needing long-term, localized use of drugs to treat diseases such as cancer, epilepsy, and chronic pain. The pump does not require large batteries and can be operated wirelessly. As a result, most of the device’s space is devoted to the drug being delivered rather than the pump’s mechanics.
NSF’s Innovation Corps aims to forge more connections between the agency’s funded research and the technological, entrepreneurial, and business communities. Each awardee team links up with a mentor from the business community to help advance its technologies to market. Meng also attended a business training course at Stanford University for awardees.
Read more: NSF Unveils Innovation Corps to Extend Innovation Impact
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