The following is a message written by Kelly Sexton:
Dear Colleagues,
This fall has brought some remarkable milestones for the University of Michigan’s research and innovation community, and I’m delighted to share a few highlights.
On October 26, we celebrated the ribbon cutting for the ASICS Michigan Sport Innovation Center, marking the launch of an exciting new chapter in our partnership with one of the world’s leading innovators in sports science and technology. This $25 million research collaboration brings ASICS’ first U.S. research hub to Ann Arbor, uniting the company’s global expertise with U-M researchers across engineering, medicine, kinesiology, robotics and more. The partnership is a tremendous validation of the depth and breadth of research excellence at Michigan, and of our ability to bring together extraordinary talent from across disciplines to tackle complex challenges. We are thrilled to welcome ASICS as a research partner and excited about what we will accomplish together.
We’re also seeing remarkable progress across our startup ecosystem. Endovascular Engineering received dual FDA clearances for its Hēlo® Platform, advancing a promising new treatment for pulmonary embolism. May Mobility announced plans to go public through a transaction valued at $1.4 billion, while Intero Biosystems, a U-M spinout developing human gut organoids to improve drug testing, took top honors at TechCrunch Disrupt’s Startup Battlefield. These milestones reflect the extraordinary range of technologies emerging from Michigan and the growing success of our startups in bringing them to market.
This momentum builds on a record-breaking year for research commercialization at U-M. Our recently released Fiscal Year 2026 Impact Report highlights 726 reported inventions and 40 new startups launched, both all-time university records. Based on publicly available data, these results place Michigan at the top of the nation in both categories. Even more exciting is what these numbers represent: an extraordinary pipeline of discoveries with the potential to improve lives, create new industries and fuel economic growth for years to come.
We also had the pleasure of bringing together nearly 300 innovators, entrepreneurs, investors and partners for our annual Celebrate Invention event in September. A highlight of the evening was honoring Dr. H. David Humes as our Distinguished University Innovator of the Year for his pioneering work developing the selective cytopheretic device, a technology now being used to treat critically ill children with acute kidney injury and sepsis. His achievements are a powerful reminder of why this work matters and the profound difference university research can make in people’s lives.
I hope you’ll enjoy exploring these stories and more in the newsletter below. Thank you for your continued partnership and support.
Sincerely,
Kelly Sexton
Associate Vice President for Research – Innovation Partnerships and Economic Impact
ASICS Michigan Sport Innovation Center Celebrates Official Opening with Ribbon Cutting, Kenzen Pitch Competition
The ASICS Michigan Sport Innovation (AMSI) Center is a pioneering research effort aimed at advancing human performance and sport science through a new multi-year research collaboration. Following the ribbon cutting ceremony at Taubman College, innovators and entrepreneurs from across the country gathered for the first edition of ASICS Ventures’ annual pitch competition, Kenzen, which was hosted in partnership with Innovation Partnerships and LEAD, a global venture firm specializing in sports and health. Six startup finalists pitched ASICS leadership and a judging panel, with the top three teams receiving a prize package valued at $80,000. The grand prize winner will move into discussions for a commercial pilot with an ASICS business unit.
→ Learn more about the AMSI Center here 🔗
U-M Startup Endovascular Engineering’s Hēlo Thrombectomy System Earns FDA Clearance
The Hēlo Thrombectomy System, developed by University of Michigan engineers and commercialized by U-M startup Endovascular Engineering (E2), has received FDA clearance to treat patients with pulmonary embolism. Unlike conventional clot-removal methods that can damage fragile vessel walls, the device combines suction with an agitator to gently draw in, thin and vacuum out clots. Founded in 2020 with support from Innovation Partnerships and the MTRAC Life Sciences Innovation Hub, E2 has since raised $122 million in Series B and C financing.
→ Read how the FDA-cleared Hēlo system uses suction and agitation to safely remove lung clots 🔗
U-M’s Innovation Flywheel Gains Momentum as Innovation Partnerships Reports a Record-Breaking Fiscal Year 2026
University of Michigan researchers expanded the real-world impact of their discoveries in fiscal year 2026, setting multiple records for research commercialization.
In the past year, university innovators reported 726 inventions, eclipsing last year’s record of 673. The university also launched a record 40 new startup companies, the highest total in U-M history and, based on publicly available data, the highest annual total reported by a U.S. university. This represents an average of a new startup every nine days.
→ Learn more about these numbers and other success stories in the FY26 Impact Report 🔗
Celebrate Invention 2026 Honors H. David Humes and a Record-Breaking Year of U-M Innovation
Nearly 300 members of the U-M community and the broader entrepreneurial ecosystem gathered for Innovation Partnerships’ annual Celebrate Invention event. The program honored H. David Humes with the 2026 Distinguished University Innovator of the Year Award for his decades-long work developing the selective cytopheretic device, which received FDA approval in 2024 for critically ill children with acute kidney injury and sepsis. Attendees also had the chance to connect with nine U-M startups and projects during the event’s networking reception.
→ Find out more about this year’s event here 🔗
MTRAC Advanced Transportation Innovation Hub, EV Center Award Nearly $1M to Mobility Research Projects
Eleven multidisciplinary research projects have been awarded nearly $1 million in funding support from the Michigan Translational Research and Commercialization (MTRAC) Advanced Transportation Innovation Hub and the University of Michigan’s Electric Vehicle (EV) Center.
The selected projects span a wide range of mobility-related disciplines, including battery technologies, advanced in-memory computing architectures, radar systems, aerospace inspection, drone propulsion and solar control coatings. Each project will receive a one-year grant from MTRAC to advance their research commercialization efforts.
→ Learn more about the MTRAC Advanced Transportation awardees here 🔗
💸 May Mobility Is Going Public in a $1.4B SPAC deal
→ Read about May Mobility’s merger here 🔗
🏆 Intero Biosystems Wins Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026
→ Read about Intero Biosystems and the Disrupt 2026 competition here 🔗
💸 Sling Therapeutics Secures $123M to Advance Thyroid Eye Disease Treatment
→ Read about Sling Therapeutics’ Series C here 🔗
🔬 AngioInsight™ Announces First Patient Enrolled in SMARTFLOW™ Clinical Study
→ Read about the SMARTFLOW™ study here 🔗
📰 U-M Launches $10M Histotripsy Research Center to Advance Sound-Wave-Based Cancer Treatment
→ Read about the histotripsy center here 🔗
🏆 Zhen Xu Receives 2026 Golden Goose Award for Work on Histotripsy
→ Read about Xu and the Golden Goose Award here 🔗
🎧 Sequestro’s Juergen Koller Featured on the Drinkable Podcast
→ Listen to the podcast episode here 🔗
💸 Connected Traffic Intelligence Receives Real-World Deployment Grant from the Michigan Mobility Funding Platform
→ Read how the grant will help improve traffic flow here 🔗
🏆 DIAPIN Therapeutics Wins Gold at the 2026 Medical Innovation Olympics
→ Read about DIAPIN and the 2026 Medical Innovation Olympics here 🔗
Rapid Diagnostics for Critical Care: Dr. Vishu Asthana’s Diagnostic Suite
Current bacterial tests take days, forcing doctors to prescribe broad-spectrum antibiotics that foster drug-resistant superbugs. To address this, Dr. Vishu Asthana, clinical instructor in internal medicine, developed the R² system, enabling culture-free bacterial identification directly from biofluids in just three hours. His portfolio also features standalone-licensable 3D-printed sample filters and 100+ target PCR primers.
→ Learn more about these advances and partnership opportunities 🔗
Kelly Sexton Appears on Ann Arbor SPARK’s CEO Podcast
On a recent episode of the CEO Podcast from Ann Arbor SPARK, Kelly Sexton, associate vice president for research – innovation partnerships and economic impact, explores Ann Arbor’s innovation ecosystem, record-setting startup activity and the discoveries taking center stage at Celebrate Invention during a2Tech360.
→ Listen to the full podcast episode here 🔗
National Advisory Board Member Patti Glaza Named DBusiness Powered by Women Honoree
Patti Glaza is being honored for her work supporting innovation as executive vice president of Invest Detroit and managing director of ID Ventures, helping to turn Southeast Michigan into a hub for high-tech startups.
→ Learn more about Patti Glaza and her impact on Michigan’s commercialization ecosystem here 🔗
