ACTSI Co-PI Receives FDA Pediatric Device Grant

The FDA named ACTSI co-PI, Barbara Boyan, PhD, and the Atlantic Pediatric Device Consortium a 2011/2012 recipient of the Pediatric Device Consortia Grant. The consortium was awarded $900,000 per year for two years and brings together the resources of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Emory University and Georgia Institute of Technology’s College of Engineering. The consortium will formalize relationships between the Georgia Technology Translational Research Institute for Biomedical Engineering and Science (TRIBES), which focuses on engineering systems that result in commercial products; the Global Center for Medical Innovation (GCMI), which designs and produces GMP-manufactured prototypes; and the GLP-certified large animal facility at St. Joseph’s Translational Research Institute. The consortium will partner with the ACTSI, which will provide a venue for testing and clinical assessments. The consortium will provide access to services for identifying novel technologies, commercialization plan development and partner with consortium centers to assist with execution.

The consortium will be led by Boyan, along with consortium co-directors Kevin Maher, MD, a cardiologist and researcher specializing in pediatrics with appointments at the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Sibley Heart Center and Emory University, and Wilbur Lam, MD, PhD, a pediatric hematologist/oncologist and bioengineer with appointments at Emory, the Aflac Cancer Center of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Georgia Tech. Lam recently received ACTSI funding through the Translational Technologies & Resources (TTR) pilot fund for his work, Clinical assessment of a Smartphone otoscope.