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A SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA entrepreneur with a dream of making life better for people has committed $100 million to the School of Engineering to establish the Alfred E. Mann Institute for Biomedical Engineer-ing, or AMI-USC.
“This new institute creates an extraordinary opportunity for USC and for Southern California,” said President Steven B. Sam-ple. “Speaking as an engineer who has been in industry as well as academe, I can say that nothing spurs the creative process as much as the prospect of bettering people’s lives and improving society as a whole. Moreover, AMI-USC holds great promise for stimulating the biotech and biomedical industries in this region.
“I am thrilled about this gift for another reason,” Sample continued. “As one of Southern California’s most successful entre-preneurs, Alfred Mann has made life better – in some cases even possible – for millions of people all over the world. To have his name on this institute says something important about what AMI-USC is intended to accomplish.”
AMI-USC WILL HAVE a strong emphasis on the development of next-generation devices, such as neural prostheses, that will be able to take the place of damaged nerves in eyes, ears and even brains. Other ongoing research thrusts in the Department of Bio-medical Engineering that may be developed at AMI-USC include speech recognition, new medical imaging systems and improved implants and biomaterials.
“Creating a bridge between a pre-eminent research university and private industry will enable the superb basic science created in academia to be developed relatively quickly into useful medical products,” Mann said.
“By carrying the research through to engineering designs for actual commercial products, this institute will be able to make new medical devices available to doctors and the public faster than is currently feasible. Those products will then be licensed to various companies so that life-saving and life-enhancing medical devices can get to those who need them in a timely way.”
PLANS FOR THE institute facility, slated for groundbreaking in 2001, call for a four-story building to house the School of Engineering’s Department of Biomedical Engineering on the lower two floors and the institute on the upper two floors.
Biomedical engineering has the third largest undergraduate program in the school. Its extensive basic research program includes particular strength in applications of computers to a wide range of biomedical problems, including medical imaging and the design of artificial organs and tissues.
The department maintains strong interdisciplinary ties with the departments of electrical engineering and computer science, and with other USC programs, including the neurosciences program in the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. Bio-medical engineering faculty also collaborate intensively with colleagues in the medical, dental and pharmacy schools.
One cross-disciplinary project that has attracted international attention is led by Theodore Berger, who is attempting to create a silicon “brain chip” that may someday be used to replace damaged or diseased areas of the brain. Berger’s team includes researchers from electrical engineering, neurosciences and pharmacy in addition to his home department of biomedical engineering.
Alfred E. Mann is the founder and current chairman of two biomedical companies – MiniMed Inc., a $100 million company that is the world’s largest maker of insulin pumps, and Advanced Bionics Corp., a $20 million manufacturer of devices to restore hearing to the profoundly deaf. In 1985 he sold Pacesetter Inc., which he had founded, to Siemens AG, but he remains chairman emeritus of the concern, the second largest heart pacemaker manufacturer in the world.
Considered one of Los Angeles’ most successful entrepreneurs, Mann founded a total of seven high-technology companies. He is chairman of the Southern California Biomedical Council, an organization working to foster growth in the region’s biomedical industry, which currently includes some 2,500 firms.
A native of Portland, Ore., Mann atten-ded Reed College, matriculating at age 16, and went on to earn bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics from UCLA. He was elected to the USC Board of Trustees in January 1998.
– Zsa Zsa Gershick and Eric Mankin
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AMI and the School of Engineering
Leonard Silverman, dean of the School of Engineering, expects that the new Alfred E. Mann Institute for Biomedical Engineering will enable USC to increasingly play the kind of role that Stanford has played in the Silicon Valley, or Harvard and MIT in the Boston high-technology community – as a catalyst for new products and jobs. “I’d be very surprised if we didn’t see startup companies coming out of this,” he says. “It will be a great transfer vehicle. It will give students tremendous opportunities for practical training, and give them access to projects much closer to end products than would normally be found in an academic setting.”
Under the terms of the agreement, AMI will increase opportunities for:
• Faculty. Up to 25 outstanding faculty members will be appointed to AMI, at least half in the Department of Biomedical Engineering.
• Senior graduate students. AMI will support about 25 research positions.
• New graduate students. Alfred E. Mann fellowships will be awarded to students in the departments of faculty with appointments in AMI.
• Undergraduates. Undergraduates will have opportunities to participate in
internships through AMI.
In addition, USC will receive cash royalties – potentially in the millions of dollars – as AMI technology is perfected, licensed and used.
While AMI faculty and fellows will gravitate to the biomedical engineering department, Silverman expects that almost all departments in his school, and many departments in other schools, will be home to AMI staff or will work with the institute. The School of Medicine, for example, will be heavily involved.
Adds Silverman: “This is a great time to be at USC Engineering.”
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