The Technological Innovation: Generating Economic Results (TI:GER®) program opens doors for students like Jeff Gross. After earning his PhD in biomedical engineering in 2007, Gross got a job as a senior management consultant with Easton Associates, a leading global healthcare consulting firm.

 “My TI:GER® experiences are what helped me land the job in the first place,” Gross says. “Easton liked the fact that I had not only a PhD in science, but also experience with market assessment as well as communicating with CEOs and others on the business side."

Consulting for biotechnology, medical device, and pharmaceutical companies, the firm hired Gross to develop business strategy and help with mergers and acquisitions. “TI:GER® helped me understand the importance of market research, due diligence, and industry analysis before taking technologies to market,” Gross says.

In the TI:GER® program, Gross worked on commercializing technology designed to improve the success of a procedure enabling people with type-1 diabetes to control their sugar levels without requiring daily insulin injections.

Now reserved for the worst cases, this risky procedure involves transplanting healthy islet cells, which produce insulin, from the pancreases of genetically matched cadavers into diabetes patients. Gross’s technology tests whether islet cells are of sufficient quality to warrant transplantation.

Because this early-stage technology is years away from use on humans, Gross and his TI:GER® teammates (an MBA and two law students) moved on to other opportunities after graduation. But Gross would like to stay involved in some capacity as his academic advisor continues with the islet cell research.

When the time comes, his TI:GER® teammates are also interested in lending a hand with commercialization. “We stay in touch in hopes that we can get something going again when this technology comes along.”