ntfall2017

NORTHERN TODAY 10 FALL 2017 ALUMNI NEWS NORTHERN STATE UNIVERSITY alumnus Dr. Michael Dixon is in the business of getting research and technological discoveries from the lab to the marketplace, where they have major benefits to public health. Dixon is president and CEO of UNeMed Corp., which works with faculty, students and staff of the University of Nebraska Medical Center to help commercialize innovative ideas. “One way we describe ourselves is: we’re the people between the lab coats and the suit coats,” said Dixon, who was in Aberdeen this fall as a keynote speaker for the Create ‘N’ Festival. When faculty, students or staff come up with a new discovery, it’s UNeMed Corp.’s job to protect it, Dixon said. That includes filing patents and working with companies to develop that technology into a product. Dixon works with a wide variety of products, including medical devices, therapeutics and software. Instead of getting specialized in one area, as is often the case with science, Dixon gets to be more of a generalist. “I like the variety of that,” he said. “It gives me the opportunity to play in a lot of different sandboxes and have a chance to talk and work with people who are doing amazing things and really changing the way medicine is deployed.” He said the philosophy of the University of Nebraska’s chancellor is: Until your discovery helps people, you haven’t completed your mission. UNeMed’s mission is about more than creating knowledge – it’s about translating that knowledge into something that helps people. “Whether that’s a product, procedure, a process – something that makes people’s lives better,” Dixon said. PRODUCTS IMPACT GLOBAL HEALTH Dixon has been involved with numerous products that have made people’s lives better. One product, an anti-malarial drug, had a huge impact on global health. UNeMed partnered with a nonprofit to develop the product. A second generation is getting close to approval that could, in combination with another drug, be considered the “holy grail for malaria,” since the current regimen is a challenge for people in remote areas. “Having something that could be a one- or two-dose cure could be a game-changer,” he said. Between the lab coats and the suit coats NSU alumnus works to bring new technology to the marketplace “I only work with the greatest thing going on in each lab. It’s like a lot of candy all the time.” NSU alumnus Dr. Michael Dixon, president and CEO of UNeMed Corp.