CU Innovations founder reflects on aligning culture with action to advance the ultimate goal: improving patient lives
When Steve VanNurden, MBA, left the Mayo Clinic to join the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus 12 years ago, Colorado was regarded as a "flyover state" in healthcare innovation. Today, it's on the map as a recognized bioscience leader.
As associate vice chancellor of biotechnology at CU Anschutz and president and CEO of the Fitzsimons Innovation Community, VanNurden helped transform the campus through CU Innovations, a program he founded to strengthen the link between groundbreaking research and commercialization to revolutionize technology transfer.
Under his leadership, CU Innovations has become a top-five innovation hub recognized by the National Institutes of Health and is ranked 21st in innovation by the National Academy of Inventors.
"They did a study when I was at Mayo where they found that it takes an average of 14 years for a Mayo invention to reach a Mayo Clinic patient," VanNurden said. "Collaboration early on can help us speed up the process of getting technologies to patients. We spend about $800 million a year on research on the CU Anschutz campus, but if that research doesn't make it to patients, my perspective is: what's the point?"
VanNurden retires at the end of 2024. Here, he reflects on his impact and how it was shaped by aligning culture with action.
