TechAccel Continues to Invest in Solving Global Food Crisis
TechAccel, the Kansas City-based technology and venture development company, has announced significant traction toward its goal of investing in companies committed to solving the global food crisis. This includes five equity investments and engaged science advancement projects at 20 affiliated research universities in the U.S. and internationally and expansion into the St. Louis market. More information »
Kansas City Consortium on Musculoskeletal Diseases Expands
The University of Missouri (MU) has joined the Kansas City Consortium on Musculoskeletal Diseases (KCMD). Formed in 2015 to bring together scientists and resources to research muscle and bone diseases, this consortium now consists of four regional academic institutions; University of Missouri-Kansas City, the University of Kansas Medical Center and Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences, and now MU. Membership in the KCMD consortium includes the incentive to collaborate around pilot research grants award of up to $50,000. The first round of funding began this past spring with an application solicitation going out to KCMD researchers and awards to be announced this summer. The four institutions are scheduled to meet at the Second Annual KCMD Symposium at UMKC, tentatively scheduled for October. More information »
Collaboration Set to Spark Breakthroughs in Human and Animal Health
Made possible by $10 million in philanthropic support, Children’s Mercy and The University of Kansas Cancer Center announced four first-of-their-kind endowed chair appointments that will help eliminate childhood diseases around the world. The endowed chair positions focus on Genomics, Health Outcomes, Hematological Malignancies and Immunotherapy. More information »
Kansas City Health Organizations Launch Collaborative Health Science District
Many of Kansas City’s leading health-care institutions announced today that they have agreed to align more closely to form the UMKC Health Sciences District. The newly created district combines the unique expertise and services of 10 partners to spur research and community outreach in service of the Kansas City region and beyond. The UMKC Health Sciences District partners include The University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) and its School of Medicine, School of Nursing and Health Studies, School of Pharmacy, School of Dentistry. Truman Medical Centers, Children’s Mercy, the Kansas City, Missouri Health Department, the Missouri Department of Mental Health Center for Behavioral Medicine, and Jackson County Medical Examiner. At unique feature of the UMKC Health Sciences District is the partnership of agencies of the city, county and state with schools of medicine, pharmacy, dentistry and nursing in one location along with a children’s hospital and an adult, acute-care hospital. More information »
Animal Health Corridor Adds Kindred Biosciences to Region, Specializing in Horse Fever Treatment
A California-based veterinary medicine company, Kindred BioSciences, plans to purchase manufacturing facilities near St. Joseph, Mo., where it will produce an injectable treatment for pyrexia, or fevers, in horses. The KC Animal Health Corridor, a collective of 300 companies from Manhattan, Kan., to Columbia, Mo., assisted Kindred Biosciences with its site search. More information »
Mobility Designed Names New CEO
Mobility Designed, a Kansas City medical device startup, announced Friday that it has appointed a new CEO. Previously held by co-founder Liliana Younger, the CEO role is now held by Dan Alcazar. A serial entrepreneur, Alcazar has experience growing early-stage, mid-sized and Fortune 500 companies, including RJR Nabisco, Sprint and Embarq. More information »
Weijing Sun, MD
The University of Kansas School of Medicine and the University of Kansas Cancer Center have appointed Weijing Sun, MD the new Sprint Foundation Professor of Medical Oncology and the Director of the Division of Medical Oncology. He also will be Associate Director for clinical research for the KU Cancer Center. More information »
Robert D. Simari, MD
The University of Kansas Medical Center (KUMC), the University of Kansas Health System and the University of Kansas Physicians jointly named Robert D. Simari, MD the Franklin E. Murphy Professor in Cardiology the Interim Executive Vice Chancellor for the University of Kansas Medical Center. He will also continue to serve as the Executive Dean for the University of Kansas School of Medicine. He succeeds Dr. Douglas Girod who has been named the new Chancellor of the University of Kansas. More information »
Edward R. O’Connor, PhD
Edward R. O’Connor, PhD was named Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic and Research Affairs for the Kansas City University. O’Connor comes to KCU from Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, where for the past three years he served as provost and chief academic officer, and professor in both the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Medicine. More information »
Alexander N. Cartwright, PhD
Alexander N. Cartwright, PhD is appointed as the incoming Chancellor of the University of Missouri, effective August 1, 2017. He will succeed Interim Chancellor Garnett Susan Stokes, PhD. Dr. Cartwright is the current Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor of the State University of New York (SUNY) System. More information »
Carolyn Henry, DVM, MS, DACVIM
Carolyn Henry, DVM, MS, DACVIM has been appointed the Interim Dean of MU’s College of Veterinary Medicine. More information »
Christopher R. Daubert, PhD
Christopher R. Daubert, PhD has been named as the Vice Chancellor and Dean of the MU College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources (CAFNR), effective Aug. 1, 2017. He is currently the Christopher R. Daubert, professor and department head of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences at North Carolina State University. More information »