TMC PULSE

t m c » p u l s e | a p r i l 2 0 1 8 2 TMC | PULSE Vol. 5 No. 3 April 2018 President and Chief Executive Officer William F. McKeon Vice President of Communications Christen Bagley Pulse Editor Maggie Galehouse mgalehouse@tmc.edu Staff Writers Alexandra Becker Christine Hall Ryan Holeywell Shanley Pierce Britni N. Riley Photojournalist Cody Duty Contributing Photographers Nick de la Torre Annie Mulligan NEWSROOM 713-791-8812 news@tmc.edu ADVERTISING Felicia Zbranek-Zeitman 713-791-8829 newsads@tmc.edu DISTRIBUTION Daniel Martinez 713-791-6136 distribution@tmc.edu READ US ONLINE tmc.edu/news FOLLOW US @TXMedCenter @texasmedcenter @thetexasmedicalcenter TMC Pulse is an award-winning monthly publication of the Texas Medical Center in Houston, Texas. Permission from the editor is required to reprint any material. WILLIAM F. McKEON President and Chief Executive Officer, Texas Medical Center Mark Mulligan/© Houston Chronicle. Used with permission. F ive years ago, the leadership of the Texas Medical Center (TMC) and our major institutions set forth to pursue a bold vision: the creation of an innovation institute unlike any other in the world. Our goal was to develop an environment that would serve as the nerve center for the next genera- tion of therapies, medical devices and digital health applications. Since that, we've come a long way: more than 175 companies have called the TMC Innovation Institute home, including 46 pharmaceutical firms, 42 medical device companies and 82 health technol- ogy businesses. We're proud that today, the TMC Innovation Institute is the largest business accelera- tor of its type in the U.S. Getting to this point required the leadership of the TMC and its members, who came together for the first time in our more than 70-year history to share perspectives and define a strategic plan that would set our course for decades to come. We looked at "innovation clusters" in the leading cities across the nation and world. In doing so, we recognized that while we had many of the attributes of these places, some of our own innovation efforts were fragmented, isolated and lacking the resources required to turn brilliant ideas into viable solutions. President's Perspective We knew that by aligning our efforts and resources centrally, we would have the most prolific life sci- ences ecosystem in the world. So what have we done to get there? First, we needed a site to house such an undertak- ing that had the size to scale for future growth and the aesthetics to support an innovation community. We selected the iconic former Nabisco cookie factory, which fit both those criteria. Second, we built the TMCx accelerator and recruited a talented team of individuals dedicated to providing the support our start-up companies need, including business plan refinement; free legal advice to establish or protect intellectual property; prototype design and development; regulatory guidance; and introductions to both medical center partnerships and venture capital. Third, we set out to attract industry to Houston. We convinced Johnson & Johnson to establish its JLABS @ TMC incubator for life sciences at the Texas Medical Center. When J&J leadership started visiting the TMC, they were so intrigued with the opportunity that they decided to build the J&J Center for Device Innovation at the TMC (CDI @ TMC), the company's only facility of this type in the world. This center is headed by renowned cardiac surgeon and entrepreneur Billy Cohn, M.D. Finally, we launched the $25 million TMC Venture Fund, dedicated to investing in early stage technolo- gies that can advance human health. These are big wins, no doubt, but this work is just the beginning. We are only now starting to hit our stride, and we plan to expand further to support the growth of the TMC Innovation Institute. We have so many more opportunities to leverage the synergies across the Texas Medical Center to further establish Texas as the "third coast" of life sciences. What's next for innovation at the TMC? Stay tuned for important announcements in the coming months. Congrats, TMC Pulse The Texas Medical Center congratulates TMC Pulse on being named a finalist for a 2018 Ellie Award. Given by the American Society of Magazine Editors, the Ellie Awards honor the best work of magazines across the nation. "Alan Dickson's Final Days," written by Alexandra Becker, was nominated in the Feature Writing category, alongside stories that appeared in The Atlantic, GQ, The New York Times Magazine, Virginia Quarterly Review and Wired. At a ceremony in New York this spring, GQ won the award. How Hospice Helps, p. 18 N E W S O F T H E T E X A S M E D I C A L C E N T E R — V O L . 4 / N O . 6 — J U L Y 2 0 1 7 Alan Dickson's Final Days

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