Impact & Achievement Highlights (Q3)
A Note from Leadership
Dear IEM,
As we enter the new academic year, we are bringing a sharp focus onto the IEM mission, vision, and values building on the years of connecting, collaborating, and catalyzing across engineering and medicine. As we define these, we will elevate the underlying strategy and processes to ensure we are successful in building bridges across disciplines and between academia, industry, and all the key stakeholders in the Minnesota region and beyond.
As such, we have strengthened our leadership team, adding Alyssa Burger, Interim Administrative Director, David Knapp, Interim Executive Director, and Dr. Michael Loushin, Associate Director VHL to ensure we build capacity to support workforce development, translational research, meaningful innovation, and industry-academic partnerships in Minnesota and beyond.
In this issue, you will see that our Centers and Symposia are firing on all cylinders, with ATP Bio making significant progress toward extending the window for organ transplantation, BMDC leading a record cohort of Innovation Fellows, and in VHL expanding their leadership team to better serve the workforce and education needs in the medtech ecosystem. There are also notices of the exciting symposia including the Organoid and Neuromodulation Symposia under the IEM umbrella, along with our presence at MD&M and the State Fair, where we are bringing together and building community over the coming months. We welcome you to dive in, engage with us, and bring your ideas to the table as we work together to create a future where scientific and engineering breakthroughs translate into better health outcomes for all.
Thank you for your ongoing support of IEM.
Warm regards,
John
IEM Director
IEM Leadership Update
We’re excited to share three key leaders that have recently join the team.
- Alyssa Burger, MEd, Interim Administrative Director, IEM: Overseeing administrative and operational strategy across IEM programs while continuing her role as Administrator for ATP-Bio. Meet Alyssa.
- David Knapp, PhD, Interim Executive Director, IEM: Leading strategic direction, external engagement, and stakeholder initiatives to advance IEM’s core mission. Meet David.
- Michael Loushin, MD, Associate Director, VHL; Professor, Dept. Anesthesiology: Brings expertise in translational systems physiology and medtech to drive cross-disciplinary research and education. Meet Michael.
Thank You Anna Budde
IEM would like to thank Dr. Budde for her contributions to IEM for the past 4 years. She assisted with the MD/MS program, Clinical Immersion Program, Biomedical Engeneering's Physician-Inspired Engineering Solutions (PIES) Program and developed the Medical Student Clerkship in Medical Device Innovation. We wish her every success in her new role as an Anesthesiologist in the Division of Critical Care Medicine within the Mayo Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine.
IEM Center Impact & Achievement Highlights
ATP-Bio Research Advances Longer-Term Organ Preservation
Researchers with the NSF Engineering Research Center for Advanced Technologies for the Preservation of Biological Systems (ATP-Bio) have achieved a major advance toward extending the window for organ transplantation. In a landmark study presented at the American Transplant Congress, ATP-Bio investigator Dr. Matthew Powell-Palm and collaborators successfully transplanted kidneys into pigs after the organs had been preserved at subzero temperatures for multiple days without freezing. The breakthrough demonstrates the potential of advanced supercooling technologies to extend organ viability, increase transportation time, and ultimately make more donor organs available to patients in need. The work, highlighted by MIT Technology Review, underscores the impact of ATP-Bio's interdisciplinary collaboration across engineering, medicine, and transplantation.
Read the ATP-Bio press release "Landmark Supercooled Kidney Transplant Study Showcases ATP-Bio Innovation in Organ Preservation" to learn more.
Alumni Startups, SBIRs, and Broken Records
The Innovation Fellows Program (IFP) continues to contribute to the UMN’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. OralMRI, founded by IFP alum Beth Groenke, advanced to finals in the 2026 Minnesota Cup High Tech division (one of the top three companies) and four startups based on Fellows' inventions are submitting SBIR applications this year with substantial grant-writing support from the BMDC. This fall, we welcome our largest cohort, with 10 fellows, including multiple faculty from both UMN's Medical School and College of Science & Engineering.
BMDC also supports the NeuroTech Course, which has now trained over 3085 learners on the best practices for commercializing neurotechnologies. In the last quarter, we hosted a workshop for 26 innovators at the University of Arkansas guiding them through hands-on exercises to hone their knowledge and skills in how to bring a neurotechnology to market.
Brain Power & Breakthroughs
The Center for Neuroengineering (CNE) once again hosted nationally-recognized leaders in the neuroengineering field through its weekly Seminar Series with highlights including talks on next generation therapies for treating chronic pain, depression, tinnitus, epilepsy, urinary incontinence, and Tourette syndrome. CNE also manages two post-doctoral T32 training grants focused on neuroimaging and translational neuromodulation research and providing trainees with professional development skills. In the past quarter, three of our trainees have graduated and transitioned into full-time research-related jobs.
Welcoming Dr. Michael Loushin to the VHL
The Visible Heart® Laboratories are thrilled to welcome Michael Loushin, MD as our new Associate Director and Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology. Dr. Loushin earned his medical degree from the University of Minnesota, completed his anesthesiology residency here as Chief Resident, and later served as Department of Anesthesiology faculty. Since 1994, he has collaborated with Dr. Paul Iaizzo and the VHL on thermal regulation and various other projects. Dr. Loushin held leadership positions with Twin Cities Anesthesia Associates (TCAA), including President/CEO, and COO. His expertise and enthusiasm will contribute to the VHL’s continued growth in cardiovascular physiology and anatomy, medical device development, research, education, and innovation.
As part of our ongoing outreach efforts, Dr. Javier Navarro and VHL members collaborated with Dr. Andrea Elliott to create pericardiocentesis and bleeding trachea models for emergency medical training for the UMN Critical Care Cardiology Education Summit, held in June on the University of Minnesota – East Bank campus.
Engineering in Medicine Ecosystem Highlights
Dr. Mary Jo Kreitzer to Retire
Thank you and congratulations on 30+ years of elevating spirituality in the healthcare ecosystem. Take a moment to revisit Dr. Kreitzer's Distinguished Keynote talk at DMD 2024.
UMN Launches New Center
Professor Jian-Ping Wang, lead researcher for the collaborative project, is a world-renowned researcher in novel magnetic materials and spintronic devices.
Research Partnership Awards $160
Dr. David Darrow's project will directly advance the development of internationally validated, clinically deployable neural foundation models.
The Great MN Get Together
This was a unique opportunity for fairgoers to learn about the ecosystem between IEM and its centers, play a fun game that explained the work ATP-Bio is revolutionizing in cryopreservation, and get their hands on 3D printed hearts and brains provided by CNE and VHL.
Additional Highlights:
- "Cancer cases worldwide are expected to soar in the coming decades." Dr. Emil Lou, Department of Medicine (Washington Post article)
- "Studies show brains aren't made for the amount of bad news we see." Dr. Alexander Herman, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences (WCCO Podcast)
- UMN Receives 2nd $750,000 DEED Grant for AI/ML Training. (TLI article)
- Dr. William Durfee (retired) receives 2026 ASME Ruth and Joel Spira Outstanding Design Educator Award. (Mechanical Engineering article)
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