UNeMed will host its annual Innovation Week festivities the week of Oct. 14-18.
Innovation Week is a popular series of events intended to celebrate and promote innovation and research at UNMC and the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO). Events include:
- a kickoff event to meet the staff of UNeMed, the technology transfer company for UNMC and UNO; ;
- an open house of local early-stage startup companies;
- an informational seminar; and
- a luncheon panel discussion.
The week culminates with an awards program that specifically recognizes innovators and their work, conferring awards to those who have disclosed a new invention, were issued a United States patent or had their technology licensed for further commercial development.
Innovation Week opens on Monday, Oct. 14, with a kickoff event at the Durham Research Center atrium from 9-11 a.m. The event will feature complimentary coffee and doughnuts, along with free UNeMed T-shirts and other giveaways. Guests are invited to meet with UNeMed staff and learn more about how UNeMed can help inventors develop their innovations.
The following day, Oct. 15, the university’s startup incubator, UNeTech, will host an open house. Beginning at 4 p.m., local entrepreneurs will demonstrate early-stage technologies that are the basis for new startup companies in health care-related industries. The open house will be held at UNeTech at 3929 Harney St.
On Wednesday, Oct. 16, Bio Nebraska will sponsor a luncheon and panel discussion that celebrates Nebraska women in STEM — science, technology, engineering and math. It will be held at 11 a.m.-2 p.m. in the Empire Room at Midtown Crossing in Omaha. See more details on how to register.
Innovation Week continues Thursday, Oct. 17, at noon with a one-hour seminar from the world-renowned researcher and chemist Dennis Liotta, Ph.D. Dr. Liotta is the executive director for the Emory Institute for Drug Development and helped transform HIV/AIDS from a death sentence into a chronic but manageable infection. It is estimated that about 90 percent of all HIV-infected patients in the United States have taken one of the two drugs he invented. The title of his seminar, which is free and open to the public, is “Novel Therapeutics for Treating Viral Diseases, Cancers and Inflammatory Disorders.”
The seminar will be held in the Durham Research Center Auditorium, beginning at noon. Seating is first-come, first-served.
Finally, Innovation Week concludes with the annual awards ceremony, which will feature a keynote address from Dr. Liotta, along with brief remarks from UNMC and UNO Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D. The awards program is invitation only.