Two NEMIC fellows among recipients of $100K from BBII accelerator fund

NEMIC is proud to announce that two of the three emerging technologies receiving $100,000 from the Brown Biomedical Innovations to Impact accelerator fund this year are NEMIC fellows.

Launched five years ago, BBII supports the development of faculty discoveries into products with clinical impact, such as drugs, medical devices, and tests. Inventors submit their project proposals to an advisory committee, which reviews them for commercialization potential. This year, the three funded proposals were whittled down from 16, all brought forward by teams led by hospital- or campus-based faculty.

Among the 2023 recipients are NEMIC fellows Frederike Petzschner, PhD of SOMA, and Kimani Toussaint, PhD.

Petzschner completed NEMIC’s Med Tech Leadership Program and our Accelerator program. Her SOMA app tracks and monitors pain symptoms, treatments, and daily activities to help researchers better predict which patients’ pain will become chronic. With her BBII funding, Petzschner will create a mind-body intervention that will be delivered through the app and can be used either on its own or alongside back pain treatments, and will be tested in a clinical trial.

Toussaint’s project also went through the NEMIC Accelerator. He is developing a novel optical technique to accurately measure blood oxygen saturation levels, regardless of skin color. He and his team will use its BBII funding to optimize the wavelength and polarization of light in a prototype device to be tested in a clinical trial.

Since 2018, BBII — which is managed by the Division of Biology and Medicine in collaboration with Brown Technology Innovations — has funded 21 proposals by 19 faculty, totaling $2.1 million. One of those recipients is SmölTap, which, last year, became the first BBII awardee to bring its technology to market. The device, designed to stabilize infants to perform a lumbar puncture (spinal tap), was invented by NEMIC fellows Brian Alverson, MD, a former professor of pediatrics and of medical science, and Ravi D’Cruz MD’13 RES’16 F’19. Their company—which received BBII funding in 2019—is now manufacturing and selling the product to hospitals.