An overview of the process, progress, and outcomes of a National Center for Accelerated Innovation: The Boston Biomedical Innovation Center Experience

Elliott M Antman; Mason W Freeman; David E Golan; Roger Kitterman; Erin McKenna; John Parrish; Cheryl Vaughan; Lesley Watts; Joseph Loscalzo

doi:10.1017/cts.2021.791

An overview of the process, progress, and outcomes of a National Center for Accelerated Innovation: The Boston Biomedical Innovation Center Experience

J Clin Transl Sci. 2021 May 17;5(1):e137. doi: 10.1017/cts.2021.791. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Elliott M Antman¹, Mason W Freeman², David E Golan^{1

3}, Roger Kitterman⁴, Erin McKenna⁵, John Parrish⁶, Cheryl Vaughan⁷, Lesley Watts⁵, Joseph Loscalzo¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
² Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
³ Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
⁴ Mass General Brigham Ventures, Cambridge, MA, USA.
⁵ Mass General Brigham Innovations, Cambridge, MA, USA.
⁶ Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
⁷ Harvard Clinical and Translational Science Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.

Abstract

Implementation of clinically useful research discoveries in the academic environment is challenged by limited funding for early phase proof-of-concept studies and inadequate expertise in product development and commercialization. To address these limitations, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) established the National Centers for Accelerated Innovations (NCAI) program in 2013. Three centers competed successfully for awards through this mechanism. Here, we present the experience of one such center, the Boston Biomedical Innovation Center (B-BIC), and demonstrate its remarkable success at the translation of innovations to clinical application and commercialization, as well as skills development and education.

Keywords: Accelerated innovation; commercialization; early phase funding; innovation translation; skills development.