Bert Sakmann, M.D., Ph.D., the 1991 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Medicine and the new scientific director of the Max Planck Florida Institute, will be the keynote speaker at the second annual UM Innovation Technology Showcase at the Four Seasons Hotel in Miami on Nov. 19.
Credited with revolutionizing modern biology by establishing the existence and function of ion channels, Dr. Sakmann may be a newcomer to South Florida but he's no stranger to the kind of groundbreaking innovations the showcase is designed to spotlight.
"We are very excited about the quality of technologies being displayed at this year's technology showcase,'' said Bart Chernow, M.D., MACP, vice provost of technology advancement, vice president for special programs and resource strategy, and professor of medicine. "The fact that we have the honor to have Professor Sakmann as the keynote speaker adds even more value to this special program."
The showcase, a forum for UM inventors and researchers to share medical, scientific and engineering discoveries with potential commercialization partners and investors, is a cornerstone of UM Innovation, the umbrella organization Chernow created to accelerate the process of moving groundbreaking research from the lab to the marketplace.
The two-day event kicks off Nov. 18 with a 6:30 p.m. reception and poster presentations of about 100 UM-bred technologies available for licensing. Ranging from aerodynamics and power generation to allergies and immunology, they have more than doubled since Chernow's arrival in 2007.
Inventors of some of the most promising of those technologies, as well as some of the Miller School's most prolific innovators, will deliver oral presentations about their groundbreaking discoveries during the showcase.
They include Camillo Ricordi, M.D., scientific director of the Diabetes Research Institute and Cell Transplant Center; Eckhard Podack, M.D., Ph.D., professor and chairman of microbiology and immunology; Margaret Pericak-Vance, Ph.D., director of the John P. Hussmann Institute for Human Genomics; Joshua Hare, M.D., director of the Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute; Eduardo de Marchena, M.D., director of the International Medicine Institute; and the Miller School's own Nobel laureate, Andrew Schally, Ph.D., M.D.h.c., D.Sc.h.c., the Distinguished Leonard Miller Professor of Pathology.
Sakmann was awarded the Nobel Prize with co-laureate physicist Erwin Neher for developing the technique for examining individual ion channels, which are vital for electrical signaling. Their discovery
helped unravel the cellular mechanisms of a number of disorders and paved the way for new and more specific drug therapies.
A native of Germany who has spent most of his distinguished career with affiliates of the Max Planck Society in Europe, Sakmann won't have far to travel for his luncheon address, scheduled for 1:30 p.m. in the Grand Ballroom at the Four Seasons, 1435 Brickell Ave. He began his new job last week as the inaugural scientific director of the scientific research organization's first U.S. institute, a biomedical research facility on Florida Atlantic University's campus in Jupiter.
For more information on or to register for the showcase, please visit: http://med.miami.edu/uminnovation/showcase/.
