The Mann Foundation for Biomedical Engineering

The Mann Foundation for Biomedical Engineering of Valencia, Calif., has awarded Purdue University of West Lafayette, Ind., $100 million to establish the Alfred Mann Institute for Biomedical Development. Commercialization of selected biomedical technologies generated at the university will be the primary goal of the institute, which will cover 30,000 sq ft and will be situated in Purdue’s Discovery Park. Initially, the institute will select two biomedical projects per year for market analysis, project development, and subsequent sales and licensing. For the latter, Indiana companies will be given preference. Faculty at Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis will conduct clinical testing on certain products. The institute represents the third such entity established by the Mann Foundation. In 2001, the first institute opened at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, followed by another at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa later that year. By 2012, the foundation intends to have created a minimum of nine more institutes at entrepreneurial research universities.