Articles

Fundraising: Crucial for Translational Researchers Medical device development is expensive, time-consuming, and uncertain—and virtually none of it happens without outside capital. For translational researchers making the transition from lab to startup, fundraising is often unfamiliar territory, requiring a different kind of persuasion than a grant application or a journal submission. Investors ar…

Preserve Potential and Reduce Risk For investigators and researchers with an idea for a novel medical device, the importance of protecting that idea—the intellectual property (IP)—is paramount. In fact, it’s one of the first considerations that translational researchers must address. IP protection is a crucial aspect of business strategy from the initial concept and early R&D because any gaps in …

Concepts to Products: Translational Development Researchers investigating medical device technology often want to develop their concepts into products that benefit clinicians, caregivers, and patients. The journey of translational development requires learning new skills, being open to expert voices, and changing one’s mindset to think like an entrepreneur.

Will the Product Sell? As translational researchers move into the development of novel devices, they must be clear on whether the technology will solve an actual problem, meet a need in an actual market, and do it better and ideally cheaper than what exists now. They must also determine whether the device can be manufactured in a reliable, repeatable, and cost-effective manner, and understand who…

Translational Development: An Exciting Field for Innovation Translational development is a growing field for clinicians, bench scientists, and bioengineers. The discipline began in the 1990s and was formalized in the 2000s. Today, graduate programs in translational research and development are increasing across the country. It’s an exciting, multidisciplinary profession requiring meaningful partn…