Meet Hubert Lim, New BMDC Director
Not many of our childhood dreams lead to successful careers. But Dr. Hubert Lim’s dream of helping people through technology has blossomed into his leadership of the Earl E. Bakken Medical Devices Center (BMDC).
At a young age, Lim knew that he wanted to become a biomedical engineer. “Since I was 7, I saw how medtech like glucose sensors could save the lives of people close to me. After learning about pacemakers and neural implants in high school, I knew I wanted to pursue a career in medical technologies in college,” says Lim. During his undergraduate studies in bioengineering at University of California, San Diego, his interests took a turn towards music. “I wanted to build a noninvasive EEG system to track a person’s music preferences. Near the end of college, I realized that EEG signals were too noisy and that we needed brain implants.”
Lim went on to graduate school at the University of Michigan to continue his passion for hearing tech. “I got exposed to cochlear implants, and it was just amazing to see how successful and impactful they could be,” he recounts. After completing his PhD, Lim ran a clinical trial at Hannover Medical School in Germany on his PhD thesis topic, developing a novel auditory midbrain implant.
When Lim decided he wanted to pursue a faculty career, all signs led to Minnesota. “I needed a place that was leading in neural engineering, neuromodulation, medtech and hearing devices/sciences. Minnesota was top in all of these with local companies like Medtronic and Starkey, along with leading hearing scientists and clinicians nearby,” says Lim. “Plus, the U of M just started hiring into the Institute for Translational Neuroscience, so it was perfect timing.” Lim joined the University in 2009 as the first Institute for Translational Neuroscience Scholar. “I was named after Hubert Humphrey, who passed away in Minnesota the same year I was born, so it felt very symbolic to come here.”
As the BMDC Director, Lim’s initial focus will be on medtech translation. “I want the BMDC to be a place where faculty, researchers, and clinicians at the University can navigate the complex world of translational medtech to get new solutions to patients faster,” says Lim. “I plan to bring more opportunities to immerse folks into the different translational processes through courses, workshops, and partnerships.” Lim hopes that such efforts will result in stronger connections between the University and industry and drive even more medtech translation and commercialization.
Looking to the future, Lim is developing specific plans for BMDC with the Medical School, College of Science and Engineering, College of Design, College of Liberal Arts, and industry advisors. Together with the Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality and Healing, he hopes to position BMDC as a catalyst that enables medtech with a whole health lens and achieve more integrative and accessible healthcare across individuals and communities. In the meantime, his lab is focused on many projects including a new ARPA-H-funded project with SecondWave Systems aimed at developing a novel ultrasound platform technology to control the immune system for many body and brain disorders.
