Wallace Coulter was not only a fantastically successful inventor of diagnostics equipment, but through the philanthropic Coulter Foundation he continues to promote medical innovation at over 10 universities across the US. Duke University has just received a $10 million commitment to permanently endow its Coulter Translational Partnership in biomedical engineering, which, combined with grants from the Fitzpatrick Foundation and other Duke resources brings the program's endowed resources to $20 million, securing its long term future.
Duke's program is one of several translational partnerships funded by the Coulter Foundation to see biomedical engineering research turned into needed clinical products that benefit people. Started in 2005, the Duke Coulter Translational Partnership provides grants to teams of biomed engineers and medical school researchers to create "a valuable entrepreneurial pipeline" for new companies commercializing Duke technology.
To qualify for Coulter funding, Duke has adopted the Coulter Process (a business analysis of sorts) to assess a project's viability and likelihood of success. Having passed this stringent development exam, a project is positioned more strongly to acquire future venture capital funding to bring it to market. Since 2005, three of Duke's Coulter projects have turned into startups and others have lead to licensing agreements, garnering a total of $35M in venture capital funds and $47M in government and private grants. All three companies are located in Research Triangle Park, strategically situated between the region’s three research universities — Duke, North Carolina State, and UNC at Chapel Hill.
[Photo courtesy of Research Triangle Park]
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