(Boston) -- Seeking to accelerate the delivery of biomedical engineering advances to the medical care of patients, Boston University and its College of Engineering are joining the German research and development organization Fraunhofer Gesellschaft to create the Boston University-Fraunhofer Alliance for Medical Devices, Instrumentation and Diagnostics. BU and Munich-based Fraunhofer will jointly fund the five-year, $5 million initiative.

Combining the innovation and translational technology development experience of Boston University and Fraunhofer, the alliance will allow for the accelerated translation of advanced biomedical research into products that can be manufactured and used in clinical applications. The alliance will leverage the most promising research innovations in labs throughout Boston University, particularly in its College of Engineering, said Andre Sharon, a BU engineering professor and director of the BU-based Fraunhofer Center for Manufacturing Innovation.

Boston University Provost David K. Campbell said, "Boston University has enjoyed a long and productive collaboration with Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, and this alliance will raise that collaboration to the next level."

Hans-Jrg Bullinger, president of Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, Europe's largest applied R&D organization, noted, "Based on Professor Sharon's outstanding track record and the excellent results from our long-standing collaboration with Boston University, we are confident that this initiative will be very successful and will lead to the development of new medical technologies."

Sharon said, "The alliance will leverage other independently funded research activities at Boston University as a continuous source of medically relevant innovations. In conjunction with Fraunhofer, the selected research will be efficiently developed into deployable technologies in a time-efficient and cost-effective manner."

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Contact: Mike Seele
mseele@bu.edu
617-353-9766
Boston University
31-Oct-2006