The Cornell Duffield College of Engineering will accelerate its Engineering Innovations in Medicine initiative – which aims to revolutionize how biomedical data is acquired, computed, and translated into impact – with an investment of up to $7.25 million over the next three years.

The support comes from the Duffield Launch Fund, which was created in January to advance immediate strategic priorities using a portion of the college’s historic naming gift from David A. Duffield ’62, MBA ’64. 

“New devices and wearables are already transforming biomedical research and human health, but we don’t always understand what the data mean – and many important signals still can’t be captured,” said Claudia Fischbach-Teschl, the leader of the initiative and the James M. and Marsha McCormick Family Director of the Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering. “Moving from treating disease to preventing it will require deciding what data to collect, how and when to collect it, and how to interpret it to guide research and clinical decisions. More interdisciplinary research and advances at the intersection of engineering, data science and medicine are needed to make data-driven medicine a reality, and that is what this support will enable.”

Engineering Innovations in Medicine, which launched in 2022, will be able to receive up to $6 million from the Duffield Launch Fund. The funding is expected to support faculty and trainee fellowships, as well as workshops and symposia designed to foster interdisciplinary collaboration. It will also create opportunities for students to engage in community-based activities, broadening the impact of the initiative beyond the research environment.

“This support is crucial as we generate momentum for this initiative,” said Iwijn De Vlaminck, the associate director of the initiative and a professor in the Meinig School, as well as a founder of multiple companies. “In addition to enabling research and discovery, advancing this work often produces ongoing benefits through clinical translation and the creation of startup companies.”

Some of the funds can only be unlocked through partnerships with Weill Cornell Medicine. Fischbach-Teschl noted that her school, out of which the initiative is run, is highly collaborative by nature; it currently averages more than three collaborations with the New York City-based medical college per faculty member.

“Cornell has numerous strengths, and our collaborative culture is one of the most important,” said Mert Sabuncu, a professor of radiology at Weill Cornell Medicine and the Andrew H. and Ann R. Tisch Professor of electrical and computer engineering at Cornell Tech and Duffield Engineering. “Bringing together a range of perspectives and expertise is essential for addressing the complex problems we encounter in medicine.”

In addition to spanning multiple Cornell colleges, Engineering Innovations in Medicine already encompasses multiple departments within Duffield Engineering. For example, the Professor William Maxwell ’56 Fellows, which support data science research in medicine, are led by David Shmoys, the Laibe/Acheson Professor of Business Management and Leadership Studies in the School of Operations Research and Information Engineering. The Maxwell Fellows program was initiated by a gift from Dev Joneja, Ph.D. ’89, and is administered through the Center for Data Science for Enterprise & Society.

“We look forward to amplifying the impact of the Maxwell Fellows and accelerating our work to enhance our understanding and use of medical data, which will be critical for improving patient outcomes,” Shmoys said.

An additional $1.25 million from the Duffield Launch Fund has been designated for Menopause Health Engineering, a research pillar within Engineering Innovations in Medicine dedicated to exploring how menopause shapes health and disease and developing effective treatment strategies. This support will build on the early momentum generated by a gift from Michael J. Kelly ’92 and Kristin Miljus Kelly to support Duffield Engineering’s menopause research.

“Support from the Duffield Launch Fund and the Kelly family are clear signals that we are on the right track as we work to enhance our awareness of important women’s health issues that have been ignored for far too long,” said Nozomi Nishimura, associate professor in the Meinig School and the leader of the Menopause Health Engineering pillar.

Duffield Engineering’s investment in Engineering Innovations in Medicine will also enable advances in data-driven discovery research, diagnostics and treatments in at least two other areas: cancer and brain health, which have both taken on greater significance as society ages. Additionally, the initiative’s leaders are working to develop fresh educational pathways for future physician-engineers and innovators at the intersection of engineering, data-driven decision making, and medicine.

“With the explosive growth in biological measurement technologies and the ways in which data science, AI and machine learning are transforming medicine, the time is right for an initiative like Engineering Innovations in Medicine,” Fischbach-Teschl said. “This support will help us make strides that will truly make a difference in people’s lives.”