Christopher Loose, Ph.D., has been named the first executive director of Yale’s Center for Biomedical and Interventional Technology (CBIT), which was formed earlier this year to foster biomedical innovations (cbit.yale.edu). Loose received his doctorate in chemical engineering from MIT, where he co-founded Semprus BioSciences and brought to market a vascular catheter designed to reduce blood clots.
CBIT is an interdisciplinary initiative that brings together engineers, clinicians, scientists, innovators, and entrepreneurs. It will focus on cross-disciplinary education for engineers, business people, and medical students; support for teams creating biomedical solutions to unmet clinical needs; and supplementing Yale Entrepreneurial Institute’s mentorship with additional medical device-focused mentors who can aid these teams in building strategy.
“The overall mission is to catalyze biomedical innovation at Yale,” said Loose, who assumed his post on June 1. “Our goal is to educate and support biomedical leaders with the skills to lead cross-functional teams in developing technologies to reduce healthcare costs and improve patient outcomes.”
Loose, who holds an appointment as assistant professor adjunct of urology, also brings experience as an accelerator executive on the Medical Device Accelerator Team at the Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology (CIMIT) in Boston. Joining Loose at CBIT as engineering director is Jean Zheng, Ph.D. ’13, who completed a doctorate in mechanical engineering at Yale after working at Boston Scientific, an innovator of medical products and technologies.
“We are very fortunate to have recruited Chris as the executive director for CBIT,” said Peter Schulam, M.D., chair of urology, and co-founder of CBIT. “He is uniquely positioned to lead CBIT, having successfully co-founded and sold a medical device company and having brought a new product to market. Working with many of Yale’s established innovation and entrepreneurial programs, I believe Chris will be successful in catalyzing biomedical commercialization across the Yale University community.”
“Chris is exceptionally well-prepared to help us advance CBIT as one of the nation’s premier centers for medical device technology,” said W. Mark Saltzman, Ph.D., chair and Goizueta Foundation Professor of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, and, with Schulam, a co-founder of CBIT. “Chris is a creative engineer, as well as an experienced entrepreneur, and these twin talents are just what we need to make CBIT a success.”
While at MIT Loose co-founded Semprus BioSciences with renowned innovator and inventor Robert Langer, Ph.D., and David Lucchino, M.B.A., and served as the company’s chief technology officer until it was acquired by Teleflex Incorporated in 2012. A peer review of Semprus technology published in Science Translational Medicine received a Frost and Sullivan Breakthrough Technology Award in 2010. Semprus’ first product, the vascular catheter with a surface modification designed to reduce thrombus formation, was approved by the FDA in 2012.
Loose received the prestigious Hertz Foundation Fellowship and was selected by MIT’s Technology Review as a member of the “TR35”—the world's top 35 innovators under the age of 35. He received the inaugural Peter Strauss Entrepreneurial Award from the Hertz Foundation in 2011 and was one of 40 emerging business leaders under 40 named by the Boston Business Journal.
CBIT is sponsoring two upcoming events to promote biomedical entrepreneurship at Yale. On Friday, Sept. 19, Robert Langer, Ph.D., one of the world’s most prolific biomedical innovators, will give a talk, “Creating and Implementing Breakthrough Technologies,” in the Cohen Auditorium at the Child Study Center at 10 a.m. Registration is required.
From October 10-12, CBIT and InnovateHealth Yale will present Hacking Health@Yale, organized by the Innovation in Medicine Club. The Hackathon will bring together students and mentors from across Yale for a weekend of problem presentations, brainstorming, and devising prototypes. Overall awards will be given as well as an award for healthcare technologies in the developing world. For more information on the hackathon visit www.hackhealthyale.com.