Medical School well-represented among Strategic Initiative Fund’s first recipients

Information for this article was excerpted from The University Record.

When University of Michigan President Domenico Grasso announced the $1 billion, 10-year Strategic Initiative Fund (SIF) in November, he encouraged University of Michigan faculty and staff to push the limits of their creativity and ambitions in designing projects that could change the world. 

The inaugural open SIF call gave the U-M community the opportunity to submit their ideas for a portion of SIF resources. The community responded with nearly 500 ideas to improve human health, strengthen communities, and build a more sustainable world.

On Aug. 26, the university announced 37 projects that will receive $40 million in initial funding to pursue those bold ideas.

“The university is making a deliberate and sustained financial commitment to invest in the ideas, people and partnerships that will shape our future and achieve our vision,” Grasso said. “And these initiatives will ensure that Michigan continues to distinguish itself as a place where bold ideas deliver lasting impact.”

To be considered for funding, each proposal had to align with one or more of the five impact areas identified in the Look to Michigan vision and encourage collaboration from scholars and staff across academic departments, university campuses and multiple colleges, schools and units.  

“These initiatives reflect the University of Michigan’s academic mission at its best — advancing discovery, enriching education, and bringing people together across disciplines to pursue questions that matter,” said Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Laurie McCauley. “We are supporting work that strengthens our core commitments to knowledge, learning, and service.”

Following are the Medical School’s funded initiatives and their primary UMMS faculty member:

• AI-Powered Optical Biopsy for Real-Time In Vivo Pathology — Thomas D. Wang, Internal Medicine-Gastroenterology, Biomedical Engineering

• Integrated Photonics for Low-Cost At-Home Biomarker Sensors — Xudong Fan, Biomedical Engineering, Emergency Medicine

• mi-SonoPatch: Smart Acute Abdominal Assessment — Frederick Korley, Emergency Medicine

• Michigan Center for Human Immunology Model Systems (MiCHIM) — Simon Hogan, Pathology

• Michigan Initiative to Reprogram Cells for Diabetes (MIRC-D) — Ganesh Palapattu, Urology

• A Novel Strategy for Effective and Non-Addictive Pain Management — Manoj Puthenveedu, Pharmacology

• Personalized Immune Models to Predict Infectious Disease Outcomes — Katherine Barnett, Microbiology and Immunology

• Scaling Interprofessional Education to Improve Human Health — Rajesh Mangrulkar, Internal Medicine-General Medicine, Learning Health Sciences

• Transformative Health Justice Training for Interprofessional Learners — Lisa Harris, Obstetrics and Gynecology

• The Ypsilanti Health Center-Legal Services of South Central Michigan Medical-Legal Partnership (YHC-LSSCM MLP) — Kimberly Slonaker, Pediatrics

In addition, two initiatives list the Medical School as a secondary school:

• Center of Safety for All (Safety4All) — College of Engineering; James Eckner, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

• Game Changers: The Michigan Center for Innovation in Women’s Sports — School of Kinesiology

“Ultimately, we will measure the impact of these investments by the difference they make in people’s lives,” said Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs and CEO Michigan Medicine David Miller. “Whether improving health, strengthening our communities, or advancing solutions for some of the most complex challenges we face, the Strategic Initiative Fund gives us the opportunity to invest in teams and work that can make a lasting, meaningful impact.”

To learn more about these SIF award winners and others, visit the Look to Michigan website.