Supporting the collaboration of interdisciplinary research.
In the midst of 28 buildings and thousands of square feet of state-of-the-art laboratory space, the North Campus Research Complex is one-of-a-kind, with U-M resources and crucial scientific core facilities that support the collaboration of interdisciplinary research.
At the University of Michigan, a unique group of interdisciplinary biomedical researchers have formed a think tank that will bring people with great questions about medicine together with those who can find answers – and where principal investigators continuously turn out technology that directly benefits society.
Description
The time it takes to test a drug, procedure or medical treatment in animals – the preclinical trials period, before the new innovation is tested on humans – is precious.
To move to the preclinical trial stage more quickly, University of Michigan Biointerfaces is examining interactions among the life sciences, the physical sciences and engineering.
The goal: New drug delivery systems, new treatments and new medical devices – in less time, with less cost and with greater reliability.
Initial projects:
- The Human-on-a-Chip Project – In vitro screening platforms
- Reverse Engineering of the Human Brain Project – Neuroengineering
- Circulating Sensor Project – Integrated Sensor Technology
Team Members
- Michigan Engineering and Pharmacy
- U-M Medical School
- U-M College of Literature, Arts & Sciences
- U-M School of Dentistry
- U-M School of Pharmacy
Co-location
Because of its unique structure, existing strength, and integration into the NCRC, there is exceptionally high potential for translation of the Institute’s research into public benefits.
Translational Research
With Biointerfaces, the University of Michigan now has a collaborative infrastructure to support, empower, and coordinate the wealth of different efforts on campus – and to enable translation from physical sciences and engineering to preclinical research. This, in turn, will accelerate bench-to-bedside progress.
A Track Record of Success
The University of Michigan has world-class researchers in nanoparticle self-assembly, nanofilms, microfluidics, stem cell research, neuronal probes, wireless sensors, drug delivery, and prostate/breast cancer. And, Biointerfaces can capitalize on well-defined strongholds of interdisciplinary programs already in place such as the National Institutes of Health Microfluidics Training Grant; the NIH Tissue Engineering Training Grant; the Center for Neural Communication Technology; and the Michigan Nanotechnology Institute for Medicine and Biological Sciences.
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Phone: 734-763-7924
The University of Michigan Center for Arrhythmia Research is led by José Jalife, MD Dr. Jalife describes arrhythmia as being "like a hurricane or tornado in your heart muscle, except instead of wind it's electrical waves."
The Center for Arrhythmia Research is a perfect fit with other research, and clinical, efforts underway within the U-M Medical School, as well as in association with the U-M Cardiovascular Center. The Jalife group works closely with others whose laboratory work relates to heart muscle cells and arrhythmia. In addition, the group also collaborates with U-M's prominent clinical arrhythmia specialists, who treat thousands of patients a year. These include the physicians of the Cardiac Electrophysiology group of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine as well as pediatric arrhythmia specialists.
Our Research Focus
We strongly encourage collaboration among our investigators and our facility is designed with interconnecting laboratories to promote the sharing of ideas and resources. For organizational purposes, we are arranged into the following five divisions:
- Cardiac Electrophysiology
- Cellular and Developmental Cardiology
- Molecular Cardiology
- Vascular Biology
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IHPI is the nation's leading university-based institute of health services researchers evaluating how health care works and how it can be improved, and advising policy makers to inform change.
Health services research (HSR) explores the impact and outcomes of the health care system on people’s health and wellbeing. Researchers in this field often investigate access to health care, the quality of care provided, and the cost of services. With such a broad area of study, health service researchers come from a wide variety of disciplines that not only include individuals from the health care field, such as medical doctors, nurses, and public health practitioners, but also professionals from fields such as business, engineering, economics, public policy, and social work.
The Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation (IHPI) was established in 2011 to capitalize on the rich academic and research knowledge of faculty studying health service research from across the University of Michigan. With a membership of more than 400 health service researchers, the institute focuses on a mission to enhance the health and well-being of local, national, and global populations through innovative, interdisciplinary health services research that effectively informs public and private efforts to optimize the quality, safety, equity, and affordability of health care services.
At NCRC, IHPI occupies more than 75,000 square feet of space in Buildings 16 (home to IHPI’s administrative offices), 10, and 14, including formal and informal collaboration space that supports multidisciplinary interactions and cutting-edge, information-sharing technologies. While not all IHPI members have offices at NCRC, institute members are welcomed and encouraged to use the services there.
Institute Members
IHPI members include faculty from the College of Engineering, the College of Pharmacy, the Ford School of Public Policy, the Institute for Social Research, the Ross School of Business, the School of Dentistry, the Law School, the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, and the Schools of Information, Kinesiology, Nursing, and Social Work. In addition to IHPI’s U-M faculty members, the institute also has external members from the following organizations: Altarum, Ann Arbor VA Center for Clinical Management Research, Arbor Research Collaborative for Health, the Center for Healthcare Research and Transformation, and Mathematica Policy Research.
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Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation
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The Weil Institute for Critical Care Research and Innovation based at NCRC Creates an Important Comprehensive Research Platform
The vision for interdisciplinary, collaborative research at U-M has gained significant strength in an exciting new development. The university launched the Weil Institute, a center for the study of acute illnesses and injuries, based at NCRC. Like other flourishing research programs at NCRC such as the Biointerfaces Institute, Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, the Cardiovascular Research Center, the Translational Oncology Program and the Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, the Weil Insitute focuses on innovative translational research in a team science framework. It brings together scientists, physicians and engineers in a broad range of specialties, from emergency medicine, surgery, internal medicine, nursing and pediatrics to biomedical engineering, pharmacy, epidemiology and bioinformatics.
With the Weil Institute, the already renowned critical illness and injury research at U-M has acquired an integrated and comprehensive platform across several major clinical entities, ranging from adults to children, and trauma to medical, while also drawing on cutting-edge engineering and applied basic science expertise of U-M’s world-class research enterprise. This creates an enormous potential to help a large variety of patients with a range of acute and critical illnesses and injuries.
The Weil Institute is a unique program, probably the only one in the country that is as broad based and integrated between all the critical care specialties and with an extensive level of involvement with medical, engineering and other schools across campus. Several locational benefits of NCRC add to the synergies between the key areas within the Weil Institute. Apart from the close connection with the Medical School, the proximity to the College of Engineering on North Campus and the presence of the Office of Tech Transfer right on the NCRC site are major advantages in the translation of the research into tangible patient benefits.
An important part of the center’s mission is serving as a place where junior investigators in the life sciences and engineering can get exposure to the intellectual richness and complexity of the challenges encountered when caring for the most severely ill patients. Dr. John Younger, one of the founding members of the group, put it this way. “In every hallway of this institution, and on a daily basis, I walk by the brightest, most motivated students I have ever seen. All of these kids are going to apply their brains, energy, and passion to something. One of my personal goals is for the center to serve as a magnet for all of this talent, for it to be a place where students, residents, and fellows can get a sense of the impact they might have on the lives of our patients. We want them to spend some time with us and realize that there’s nothing else in the world they’d rather work on.”
Several major participants in the Weil Insitute have already moved to NCRC. Research operations include the labs of Drs. Neumar, Younger, and Ward from the Department of Emergency Medicine - researchers who focus on cardiac arrest, sepsis, and critical care monitoring, as well as Dr. Hasan Alam’s surgery group with a large trauma research program. Researchers who will collaborate in the bioinformatics area will be dual-based in the new center and in the Department Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics. Close collaborations with strategic partners such as the Biointerfaces Institute, Michigan Center for Clinical and Health Research (MICHR) and the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation (IHPI), all of which are already at NCRC, will be facilitated by the location. M-CIRCC is thus not only internally composed of a wide range of researchers, its deliberate strategy of reaching out to other established research programs to foster new collaborations adds yet another dimension. After all, when critical masses of researchers from diverse groups are co-located and are provided ample opportunities for interaction, who can predict the path-breaking innovations that could result?
