Incubator Thesis

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Limited Pathways for Early-Stage Biomedical Innovators

Early-stage biomedical entrepreneurship faces significant barriers that simply do not exist in most other industries. The field is capital-intensive, equipment-dependent, and requires specialized personnel from day one — making the runway long and costly before meaningful development can even begin.

For most founders, it can take six months just to secure funding, and another six months to assemble facilities, infrastructure, and technical capabilities — and that is under ideal circumstances. During this period, critical time-to-market is lost, momentum stalls, and innovation often dies before it ever reaches a prototype.

Make it stand out.

  • "This has been a very solid partnership. Dr. Chan has brought a unique competence to this collaboration along with a desire to create something meaningful for NASA’s space missions. For decades, the Holy Grail of portable biomedical diagnostics research has been the creation of a device that could measure dozens or hundreds of biomarkers from a tiny bit of biosample, such as a drop of blood. In my view, the rHEALTH and nanostrip technologies not only have the greatest potential to finally achieve this objective—with Chan’s know-how and dedication, they are likely to actually reach this goal."

    Dr. Emily Nelson, NASA Glenn Research Center

  • "I have had the chance to work in a lot of different places including: academic labs, management consulting firms, small and large companies. Working at DMI is the best of all these different worlds. You get the freedom to explore important scientific and engineering problems as you do in academia. You get the passion, motivation and energy of a start-up. You have the technical expertise and experience in Eugene that comes with a large organization. It’s a special place with a very unique culture. It’s a place that is very committed to you as an individual. I most certainly got out much more than I put back in."

    Steve Xu, Harvard Medical School

  • "From discussing experiments in lab meetings to rapidly troubleshooting devices on the lab bench, my internship at the DMI ignited my passion for entrepreneurship and engineering. As part of the DMI, I saw not only how distinct fields intertwine to form an innovative product, but also how diverse teams collaborate to drive a product to market. The tightly knit and fast-paced culture of the lab provided immense experience in teamwork, leadership, and technical capacity which will prove critical in the future. My experience far surpassed my expectations and I am immensely thankful for having had the opportunity to work with the DMI."

    Camilo Ruiz, MIT

  • "The Medical Innovation Program is so exciting because I am given the opportunity to use my creative energy to make a positive difference in medicine. It’s an amazing feeling to know that the work I am doing every day as part of the program will help save lives in the near future."

    Andrew Bishara, Harvard Medical School