Background: Boston From Across The Charles River

Boston University | Fraunhofer Alliance for Medical Devices, Instrumentation and Diagnostics

Fraunhofer Center for Manufacturing Innovation

Collage of Biomedical-Related Images
© 2011 Fraunhofer CMI.

The process of turning research innovations into functional products that can serve real societal needs is chaotic and lengthy. Innovative ideas often linger too long in the research phase. The BU – Fraunhofer Alliance for Medical Devices, Instrumentation and Diagnostics was created to accelerate the development and deployment of medical innovation from the laboratory to the patient point-of-care. Working closely with the principal investigators, Fraunhofer CMI engineers develop these ideas into functional instruments and devices that can attract investment from VC's for a new venture creation or be licensed to existing companies in their space. This program is funded jointly by Fraunhofer and Boston University.

Over the last several years, the Alliance undertook a number of projects including:

  • Lab on a Chip Platform for Molecular Diagnostics
  • Optical Forceps for Colon Cancer Detection
  • Automated Molecular Sample Preparation
  • Hi-Lo Microscopy
  • Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy for Rapid Bacteria Identification
  • Bacterial Concentrator
  • Fine Needle Aspiration for Thyroid Cancer Detection