Wake Forest innovations accelerates pace of turning discoveries into lifesavers: entrepreneurs and scientists work together at its Winston-Salem campus.

• Position: WAKE FOREST INNOVATIONS

Wake Forest Innovations is changing the dynamics of the academic-industry relationship. The commercialization arm of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center--a nationally recognized academic medical center located in Winston-Salem Wake Forest Innovations delivers a unique combination of research and clinical experience, business expertise and entrepreneurial spirit to the task of developing new health-care products and services. "Because of recent trends in the health-care industry, academic medical centers are becoming more actively involved in product development and commercialization," says Eric Tomlinson, D.Sc., Ph.D., Wake Forest Baptist's chief innovation officer. "Most major research institutions have enviable resources--leading experts, state-of-the-art equipment, first-rate facilities. But to achieve tangible results with industry that infrastructure must be reinforced with a strong commitment to innovation and entrepreneurship."

That's exactly what Wake Forest Innovations brings to partnerships with pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies --startups or multinationals. "We're committed to accelerating the transformation of research discoveries into viable commercial products by satisfying industry-standard criteria while upholding academic standards and values," Tomlinson says. "We partner with industry to bring to the marketplace therapeutics and devices that will save lives and improve health care worldwide."

The strengths of Wake Forest Innovations include:

* An integrated management team recruited from pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies with extensive experience across the life-sciences industry--research and preclinical studies, regulatory affairs and compliance, clinical trials, product commercialization and business development.

* More than 500...